Class 
Book 



I 



I 



t 

THE 



\ ANCIENT HISTORY 

O F 

UNI VERS ALISM, 

FROM 

THE TIME OF. THE APOSTLES TO ITS CONDEMNATION IN THE 
FIFTH GENERAL COUNCIL, A. D. 553. 

WITH AN 

APPENDIX, 

TRACING THE DOCTRINE DOWN TO THE 

ERA OF THE REFORMATION. 



BY HOSEA BALLOU, 2d. 

PASTOR OF THE UNIVERSALIST CHURCH IN MEDFORD, 



SECOND EDITION, REVISED, 

PROVIDENCE : 
PUBLISHED BY Z. BAKER, 

GOSPEL MESSENGER OFFICE, 

1842. 



3/ 



ENTERED ACCORDING TO A.CT OF CONGRESS, IN THE YEAR 1842, BY 

HOSE A BALLOU, 2d. 

IN THE CLERK'S OFFICE OF THE DISTRICT COURT OF MASSACHUSETTS 



1 



providence: BENJAMIN F. MOORE, PRINTER 



PREFACE 

TO THE FIRST EDITION, 

The reader will perceive, in the commencement of 
the following work, that I have not introduced a state- 
ment of the Scripture doctrine upon the subject of my 
History. For the omission, which some may consider 
a defect, I submit these reasons : it seemed to me that 
a brief statement would prove useless, since every one 
would form his own opinion from other authority ; and 
it was thought that a satisfactory discussion of the im- 
portant question, belonged rather to the Polemic than 
to the Historian. Accordingly, for the commencement 
of my undertaking, I fixed on a date posterior to the 
publication of most of the New Testament ; and yet, 
as it was desirable to take into view every other Chris- 
tian production extant of the first ages, it was neces- 
sary to begin as early as A. D. 90, before some of St. 
John's writings were composed. 

The attentive reader will also discover, as he pro- 
ceeds, that the Ancient History of Universalism is 
naturally distinguished, by certain peculiarities, into 
three successive Periods : — the First, extending to 
the year 190, and embraced in the first two chapters, 
affords but few indisputable traces either of that doc- 
trine, or of its opposite ; the Second, running through 
the third, fourth, fifth and sixth chapters, to the year 
390, or 394, is distinguished by the prevalence both 



iv 



PREFACE. 



of Universalism and of the doctrine of endless misery, 
without producing the least disturbance or uneasiness 
in the church ; the Third, reaching to the Fifth 
General Council, in A. D. 553, is marked with con- 
tinual censures, frequent commotions, and some dis- 
graceful quarrels, on that subject. 

And, as I have endeavored to vary my general 
plan, so as to suit the peculiar character and circum- 
stances of each of these periods, I would here bespeak 
the reader's attention to the method I have pursued. 
In the first Period, then, I have been careful to state, 
in his own words, the opinion of every Christian au- 
thor, w T ho has left us any remarks concerning future 
punishment, or the eventual salvation of the world ; 
and down to the year 150, I have, with still more 
particularity, inserted every passage which I thought 
belonged to either of those subjects. Accordingly, it 
may be expected that, to many, the first two chapters 
will prove more tedious than the rest of the work. In 
the second Period, while it has been my principal 
object to give a full account of all those fathers, who, 
during that time, advocated or favored Universalism, I 
have also aimed to present a correct view of the opin- 
ions entertained, the meanwhile, by the Christian 
world at large, on that point. In the third Period, I 
have pursued nearly the same course ; leaving, how- 
ever, the common sentiment of the church, concern- 
ing the doctrine in question, to be gathered from the 
controversies and quarrels which then occurred, and 
which I have minutely described. Thus far, I may 
venture to pronounce the History complete, in one 
respect : it contains an account of every individual of 



PREFACE. 



V 



note, whom we have now the means of knowing to 
have been a Universalist. 

In the Appendix the plan is very different, since a 
regular and connected history of Universalism, from 
the Fifth General Council to the Reformation, is, 
with me, utterly impracticable. Here, therefore, 
nothing but a sketch is attempted, pointing out those 
traces of the doctrine, which I have happened to dis- 
cover in the course of reading. 

I would also take this opportunity, once for all, to 
apprize my readers of the sense in which they will* 
find certain terms and phrases ' used in the following 
work. The title, bishop, is supposed to have signi- 
fied, at first, only the chief minister of a city, or terri- 
tory ; though it afterwards became confined in its ap- 
plication to a distinct and superior order of clergy. 
By the popular epithets orthodox and heretic, I mean, 
not the true and the false, but the predominant, or 
catholic, and the dissenting, or anathematized. To 
conclude, I have frequently spoken of the Western or 
Latin Churches, in distinction from the Eastern or 
Greek ; though they were not finally separated from 
each other's communion, till the ninth century, 

Roxbury, Oct. 22d, 1 828. 



1* 



ADVERTISEMENT 



TO THE SECOND EDITION. 

Numerous changes are made in this Edition ; but the 
most of them are merely verbal. Some sentences and 
paragraphs are omitted, as unnecessary or irrelevant ; 
others are transferred from the text to the margin, as 
belonging more properly among the notes. A few 
accounts are inserted of those whom the author has, 
since the publication of the work, found to have been 
Universalists. 

No occasion has been discovered for correcting any 
material statement, except perhaps in what relates to 
the fact last mentioned in the history, — the condem- 
nation of Universalism and its advocates by the Fifth 
General Council. Though the ancient Greek histori- 
ans agree that such was the fact, and though the acts 
of that condemnation are found among the other 
acts of this body, yet there is some reason to suspect 
after all, that they are the acts of the council held 
under Mennas, at Constantinople, in the year 540 ; 
and to doubt whether the General Council ever med- 
dled with the matter. As the point, however, is not 
fully settled, the statement in the first Edition is suf- 
fered to remain with only a hint or two of uncertainty. 

No one can be more sensible, than the author, that 
this history needs to be written anew, and on a more 
philosophical plan, especially in the former part. 
This, he has long desired to see done ; and should 
his life be continued, and an opportunity of sufficient 
leisure occur, he hopes to undertake the labor, at some 
future season. 

Medford, January 1, 1842. 



CONTENTS, 



CHAPTER I. 

Opinions entertained by the Christians, from A. D. 90, to A. D. 
150, concerning future punishment, and the eventual salvation of 
the world, exhibited by means of all the relative passages in the 
Orthodox writings extant of this period, and by a summary state- 
ment of the doctrine of the early Gnostic sects. 

a. d. sect. 

Number, condition, and common faith of the 
90 the Christians. 1 
The Orthodox. Titles and character of their 
writings yet extant. - - - 2 

90 — 95 Epistle of Clemens Romanus. Date of St. 
94 — 100 John's later writings, and time of his death. 3 

107 or 116 Epistles of Ignatius. Relation of his Martyr- 

dom. - - - - - 4 

108 or 117 Epistle of Polycarp. ... 5 

Corruptions growing in the church. 
116 to 126 Papias. Aristides. The Greek Philosophy. 6 
131 Epistle of Barnabas. - - - 7 
About 150 Shepherd of Hermas. 8 
90 to 150 The Gnostic Christians. Their general doc- 
trine and character. - - - 9 
About 120 The Basilidians, Universalists. - - 10 
do The Carpocratians, do. - - 11 
About 130 The Valentinians, do. - - 12 
What notions of the Gnostics were peculiarly 
odious to the Orthodox. 13 

CHAPTER II. 

Opinions of the Christians from A. D. 150, to A. D. 190, con- 
cerning future punishment, and the eventual salvation of the icorld* 
illustrated by extracts from all the authors extant of this period, 
icho have introduced the subject. 

A. D. SECT. 

Increase of Heretics. Ebionites. Character of 
150 the Orthodox. 1 
Change in the character of the Christian writ- 
ings. Titles of those extant of this period. - 2 
— 150 — The Sibylline Oracles, containing the earliest 

explicit assertion of a restoration of the damned. 3 
150 to 162 The works of Justin Martyr. - 4 



3 



CONTENTS. 



SECT. 

Relation of the Martyrdom of Polycarp. - 5 
Oration of Tatian. 6 
Ecclesiastical History of Hegesippus. - 7 
Epistle of the Churches of Lyons and Vienne. 8 
Works of Athenagoras. - - 9 

Treatise of Theophilus. 10 
Works of Ireneeus. - - - -"11 

Summary of the first two Chapters. Remarks. 12 
Necessary change in the plan of this History. 13 

CHAPTER III. 

Clemens Alexandrinus, and his Cotemporaries ; or, the Opinions 
of the Christians from A. D. 190, to A. D. 230, concerning the 



future state. 

190 to 196 Clemens Alexandrinus, a Universalist. His 

own testimony. His views of the future state. 1 

His general system of doctrine. His standing 
in the Orthodox church. 2 

His life. • 3 

His character. - - - 4 

200 to 204 Tertullian, a believer in endless misery. - 5 
210 Minucius Felix. - - - 6 

Opinions of the Orthodox concerning the state 
of the dead, and the near approach of the last 
judgment ----- 7 

State of Universalism among both the Orthodox 
and the Gnostics. 8 

CHAPTER IV. 

Origen, and his Doctrine.. 

230 Origen's renown. His books Of Principles. 1 
His testimony in favor of Universalism and 

Pre-existence. - 2 

His Life from A. D. 185 to A. D. 203. - 3 

« " 203 " 216. - 4 

« " 216 " 230. - 5 
230 His first publications. His general system of 

doctrine. - - - - 6 
His method of interpreting the Scriptures. 7 
His life from A. D. 230 to A. D. 245. - 8 
" 245 " 253. - 9 
His character. - - - - 10 
230 to 253 Universalism a favorite topic with him. Ad- 
ditional testimonies. - - - - 11 
The manner in which he taught it. - 12 



CHAPTER V. 

Origen's Scholars and Cotemporaries ; or, Opinions of the 
Christians from A. D. 230 to A. JD. 270, concerning Universalism. 

Difficulty in ascertaining the extent to which 
Universalism prevailed. Origen's influence. 1 



A, D, 

160—170 
170 
173 
177 

178 to 180 
181 

180—190 



CONTENTS. 



9 



A. D. SECT. 

206 to 270 Eastern Churches. Alexander, bishop of 
Jerusalem ; and Theoctistus, bishop of Cesarea 
in Palestine. - - - - 2 

Heraclas, bishop of Alexandria. 3 
Arabrosius, Origen's patron. - - 4 

Firmilian, bishop of Cesarea in Cappadocia. 5 
Gregory Thaumaturgus, and Athenodorus, bish- 
ops of Pontus. 6 
Heretics of all kinds. - 7 

249 to 258 Western Churches. Cyprian bishop of Car- 

thage. - 8 

250 to 270 Character, condition, and general doctrine of 

the Orthodox. - 9 

Appendix to Chapter v. The Manicheans. 

Extensive and lasting consequences of their 
heresy. Life of its author, Mani. - -1 

265 His general system of doctrine. 2 
Its reception among the Persians and Greeks, 
and its appearance within the limits of the Roman 
Empire. ----- 3 

CHAPTER VI. 

History of Origen's doctrine from A. D. 254 to A. D. 390; and 
of the opinions entertained by the Christians, in the mean time, 
concerning the future state. 

Design and plan of this Chapter. Nepos re- 
vives in Egypt the doctrine of the Millennium, 
257 to 263 against Origen ; but is refuted. 1 

Origen's popularity. His doctrine attacked by 
280—290 Methodius, bishop of Tyre. He is imitated by 
290—300 Victorinus. 2 
About 300 Peter, bishop of Alexandria, reproaches his 

memory. - , - - - - 3 

305, 306 Arnobius and Lactantius, concerning the future 

state. - - - - - - 4 

Complaints in the East against Origen's doc- 
307 to 310 trine. Pamphilus and Eusebius's Apology for 

him. - - - - 5 

Evidence that Universalism was not unpopular, 
and that Pamphilus and Eusebius were favorably 
disposed towards it. - - - - 6 

Account of Pamphilus and Eusebius. - 7 

Arian controversy. Origen's name and doc- 
320 to 360 trine somewhat involved. Marcellus, a Univer- 

salist. - - - - - 8 

Origen's notions attacked by Eustathius of An- 
tioch, and by Apollinarius of Laodicea. - 9 

347 to 370 Eastern Fathers. Athanasius, Cyrill of Jeru- 
salem, Ephraim the Syrian, (and Hilary of Poi- 
ters, a Western bishop,) concerning future pun- 
ishment. 10 



10 



CONTENTS. 



A. D. SECT. 

350 to 370 Fabius Marius Victorinus, (a Western writer,) 

a Universalist. 11 
360 to 370 Titus, bishop of Bostra, a Universalist. - 12 

370 Basil the Great, bishop of Cappadocia. - 13 
Rise and establishment of the monastic institu- 
tion. The Origenists. Their chief retreat at 

370 to 376 Nitria. 14 

376 They are attacked by Epiphanius, bishop of 

Cyprus. ----- 15 

370 to 383 Many of the Orthodox fathers in the East, are 

Universalists. Gregory Nazianzen's indecision. 16 
His life, eloquence and character. - - 17 

Gregory Nyssen's testimony in favor of Univer- 
salism. _____ 18 

His general system of doctrine, works, life, &c. 19 
Didymus of Alexandria a Universalist. His 
life, character, and works. - - - 20 

380 to 390 Jerome a Universalist. His early life. His 

friendship with Rufinus. - - -21 

390 Evagrius Ponticus a Universalist. - 22 
Most of the leading Origenists, perhaps, Uni- 
versalists. Palladius of Galatia. Isidorus of Al- 
exandria. John, bishop of Jerusalem. - 23 

378 to 394 Diodorus of Tarsus, a Universalist. - - 24 

Western Fathers. Ambrose, bishop of Mi- 
384 to 390 lan. Ambrosiaster, or Hilary deacon of Rome ; 

their opinions of the future state. - - 25 

Heretics. The Arians of this century. Sa- 
bellians. Novatians, and other schismatics. 
The Manicheans ) their opinions concerning 
Universalism. - 26 

CHAPTER VII. 

The Contest with the Origenists, from A. D. 391 to A. D. 404 ; 
in which Universalism is for the first time censured, and in part 
condemned. 

391 Principal bishops, writers, &c. in Christendom. 
Banishment of the Arians. Quiet of the Church. 1 

Epiphanius's attack upon John of Jerusalem. 

393 His ordination of Paulinianus, Jerome's brother. 
Complaints of John. - - - 2 

394 Epiphanius's Letter to John concerning Origen's 
errors ; in which Universalism is for the first time 
censured. - - - - 3 

Disturbance in Palestine. Jerome sides with 

395 Epiphanius against John and Rufinus. - 4 

Letter of Isidorus. Attempt of Archelaus at 
reconciliation. Mission of Isidorus from The- 
ophilus, archbishop of Alexandria. - - 5 

396 He assists John in composing an answer to Epi- 
phanius, or Apology to Theophilus. - 6 



CONTENTS. 



11 



396 The Christians at Rome variously affected by 
these publications ; some of them request infor- 
mation from Jerome. He writes them an An- 

397 swer to John's Apology. Receives a letter from 
Theophilus, and replies. His application to Au- 
gustine. ----- 7 

Reconciliation between Jerome and Rufinus, 
Rufinus goes to Rome with Melania, translates 
and publishes the first book of the Apology for 
Origen, and Origen's books Of Principles, and 
covertly attacks Jerome. Spread of Origenism 
397, 398 at Rome. - - - - 8 

Jerome receives those works, writes to Rufinus, 
398 or 399 and composes a Defence of himself, in which he 
denies a restoration from hell, and states Origen's 
chief errors. - - - - - 9 

Theophilus quarrels with Isidorus and the Nitri- 
an monks, and takes up against the Origenists. 
Assembles a council at Alexandria ; in which 

399 Origen's doctrine and books are, for the first 
time, formally condemned. Nitria. Theophilus 
drives away the Origenists ; who flee to Pal- 
estine. Conduct of John of Jerusalem. Exulta- 
tion of Theophilus, Epiphanius and Jerome. 
Council at Cyprus, and decree of the Roman 

400 Pontiff against Origen's works. - - 10 

Points of his doctrine condemned in these pro- 
ceedings. How his condemnation was received 
by the orthodox in general. - - - 11 

400 Theophilus sends a deputation against the Ori- 
genists, to Chrysostom, bishop of Constantinople. 
The Origenists proceed thither, and are favorably 
to received. Persecution and exile of Chrysostom. 
Death of Epiphanius, Isidorus, and the leaders of 
the Origenists. Reconciliation of Theophilus 

403 with the rest. - - - - 12 

Paschal Epistles of Theophilus to the Egyptian 
401 to 404 churches, against Origen's doctrine. - - 13 

Italy. The Roman Pontiff cites Rufinus, on a 
400 to 404 charge of heresy ; rejects the Apology which 
Rufinus sends ; and condemns him. Rufmus's 
Invective against Jerome. Extracts of it pri- 
vately sent to Jerome. - - - 14 

Jerome, in answer, writes his Apology against 
Rufinus j in which he denies Universalism, and 
gives a catalogue of Origen's principal errors. 
Rufinus is exasperated, and threatens. Jerome 
adds the conclusion to his Apology against Ru- 
finus. - - - - 15 

404 End of the Contest, Review of its character. 16 



12 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

History of Universalism from Jl. D. 405, to A. D* 500. 

A. D. SECT. 

Division of the Roman Empire. Disorders and 
405 weakness of the state. Progress of the church 
towards supreme power. Contest with the Dona- 
tists. - - - - - 1 

"405 The Origenists find repose. Rufinus, Melania, 
John of Jerusalem, Evagrius Ponticus, and Palla- 
dius of Galatia. Theophilus grows attached 
to again to Origen's works. His death. Jerome, 
too, avails himself of Origen's authority, though 
he inveighs against the Origenists. States his 
views of future punishment. Perhaps, in secret, 
412 a Universalist still. /- - - 2 

The orthodox of this age are divided intOcflve 
classes, in their notions of future punishment, and 
of the final extent of salvation. - - 3 

Universalists in Spain, under the two Avitus's, 
410 to 415 Basil, &c. Their peculiar opinions. Augustine, 
by request of the Spanish bishops, writes against 
them. His criticism on the Greek word transla- 
ted everlasting. His arguments against Univer- 
salism. 4 

Augustine ; author of the doctrine of total de- 
pravity, irresistible grace, and sovereign, partial 
election. 5 

Unfavorable influence of that doctrine against 
Universalism. - - 6 

412 Account of its introduction : Augustine, in op- 
to posing Pelagius and Celestius, runs to the opposite 
418 extreme. - - - - - 7 

413 to 420 Pelagius patronized by John of Jerusalem. 

Death and character of the latter. Death of 
Jerome. 8 
420 to 428 Theodorus of Mopsuestia, a Universalist. His 

life, character, and works. - - 9 

430 to 450 Universalism prevails around Cesarea in Pales- 
tine ; but is not mentioned again, till the end of 
this century. - - - - - 10 

450 to 500 Probable' cause of this silence may be found in 
the civil and ecclesiastical commotions, which 
engrossed the public attention. Fall of the West- 
ern Empire. Nestorian controversy in the East. 11 
About 500 Bar-Sudaili of Edessa, a Universalist. - 12 

Manicheans and Gnostics of this century. - 13 

CHAPTER IX. 

Revival and progress of Origenism in Palestine ; and final 
condemnation of Universalism in the Fifth General Council. 

View of the Solitude between Jerusalem and 
the Dead Sea. - - 1 



CONTENTS. 



13 



A. D . SECT. 

Lauras and monasteries in that region. St. 
500 Sabas. Disaffection in his Laura ; the founding 
501 to 507 of Nova Laura. - - - - 2 

514 Nonnus, Leontius, and other Origenists admitted 
into Nova Laura. Their Universalism. Their 
to expulsion ; and re-admission. Their doctrine 
spreads in the country. The affair introduced, 

531 by Sabas, to the notice of the emperor Justinian. 3 

Death of Sabas ; prosperity of the Origenists. 

532 Domitian and Theodorus Ascidas, Universalists. 
They go to Constantinople, and are appointed 
archbishops. Their influence at Court ; and 
their patronage of their friends in Palestine. - 4 

537 Gelasius, abbot of St. Sabas, expels the leading 
Origenists from the great laura ; but is obliged 

538 to drive away, in turn, some of his orthodox 
monks. These go to Antioch, and lay the mat- 
ter before Ephraim, patriarch of that city ; who 
calls a council of the bishops, and anathematizes 
the heresy. The Origenists, in revenge, attempt 
to procure the excommunication of Ephraim. 
Peter, bishop of Jerusalem, withstands them, and 
sends an account of their heresy and conduct to 
Justinian. - - - - -5 

539 — 540 Justinian publishes an Edict, commanding Ori- 
geirs errors, among which is Universalism, to be 
condemned, together with their author and advo- 
cates. The bishops at Constantinople meet in 
council and approve the edict ; and the patriarchs 
of the Eastern and Western churches subscribe 
it. - - - - 6 

540 But in Palestine, Alexander, a bishop, refuses 
to subscribe ; and the partizans of Nonnus prefer 
banishment from their cells. Peter, bishop of 
Jerusalem, is compelled to compromise, and re- 
to store them. Their quarrels and combat with the 
orthodox monks. Gelasius goes, with a com- 
plaint, to Constantinople ; but is driven away 
by Theodorus Ascidas. The orthodox in Pales- 

546 tine are dispersed ; and the Origenists take pos- 
session of the lauras and monasteries. Death of 
Nonnus and Leontius. The laura of Sabas falls 
into the hands of the orthodox ; while the Ori- 
genists gain the election of Macarius to the bish- 

547 opric of Jerusalem. Dissention among them- 
selves. - - - - 7 

546 Artful plan of Theodorus to revenge the late 
t condemnation of Origen. He procures an edict 
from Justinian against the Three Chapters. Com- 
553 motions which followed in the church. - € 

2 



14 CONTENTS. 

553 Meeting of the Fifth General Council, in which 
certain writings of Theodorus of Mopsuestia, 
Theodoret of Cyrus, and Ibas of Edessa, are con- 
demned. The subject of Origenism is brought 
before the council ; anathemas pronounced against 
the doctrine ; and the works of Didymus of Alex- 
andria, and of Evagrius Ponticus in favor of Uni- 
versalism, condemned. 9 
553 — 554 Execution of the Council's decrees in Palestine ; 

and consequent dispersion of the Origenists. - 10 



APPENDIX. 

Traces of the doctrine from the time of the Fifth General Coun- 
cil to the Era of the Reformation. 

649 to 869 The first Lateran Council, and the seventh and 
and eighth General Councils repeat the condem- 
nation of Origen, Didymus and Evagrius. Ger- 
manus writes against the Universalists. - 1 

744 Clement, perhaps a Universalis!, in France. 2 
870 John Scotus Erigena, a Universalis!:* - - 3 

850 to 1050 Age of darkness, in the church. Character of 

the clergy, and state of religion. 4 
660 The Paulicians perhaps the remote occasion of 
the Reformation. Their character, manners, and 
to doctrine. - - - - 5 

Their History. Their dispersion over Europe, 
1100 where they appeared under various denomina- 
tions. - 6 
1190 Raynoid, abbot of St. Martin's, at Nevers, in 

France, accused of Universalism. - - 7 

1*200 to 1210 Amalrie, or Amauri, perhaps a Universalist. 

His sentiments condemned at Paris and Rome. 8 
1222 Salomon, bishop of Bassora, a Universalist. 9 
1230 to 1234 Du Pin's account of the Stadings, in Germany. 10 
1315, &c. Lollards in Germany. - - 11 

1368 Universalism taught in England, and condemn- 
ed by a council at Canterbury. - - 12 
1400 to 1412 Men of Understanding, in Holland, Universa- 
lists. iEgidius Cantor, and William of Hildenis- 
sen. - - - - - 13 
1480 to 1494 John Picus Mirandola, an Italian prince, denies 
the infinite demerit of sin ; is accused of heresy, 
and makes his peace with the Pope. - - 14 
1490 to 1498 Peter D'Aranda, a Spanish bishop denies pur- 
gatory and hell ; is deposed on a false charge of 
Judaism, and condemned to perpetual imprison- 
ment. ----- 15 



THE 



ANCIENT HISTORY 



UNIVERSALIS M 



CHAPTER I. 

[From A. D. 90, to A. D. 150.] 

A. D. 90.] I. At the date with which this history 
begins, none of the apostles are supposed to have 
been alive, except St. John, who then resided, at a 
very advanced age, in the great city of Ephesus. St. 
Peter and St. Paul suffered martyrdom at Rome, 
more than twenty years before : and St. James the 
Great, and St, James the Less, at Jerusalem, still 
earlier. Of the deaths of the other apostles, nothing 
can be pronounced with confidence, notwithstanding 
the accounts given of their martyrdom by some an- 
cient writers, and adopted by many of the moderns. 

Nor must we pretend to define the extent to which 
Christianity had now spread ; since, on this subject, 
it is often impossible to distinguish the true from the 
fabulous accounts of early historians. It is probable, 
however, that some churches were already established 
in most of the Roman provinces, especially in the 



16 



THE ANCIENT HISTORY 



eastern. But the number of professed Christians 
must still have been very small, compared with the 
whole mass of community : and it must have been 
composed, with some exceptions, of the lower classes 
of people. The rich and noble were, for the most 
part, attached to the ancient forms and institutions : 
and the men of great learning, and those of refined 
taste, did not depart, as indeed they seldom do, from 
that popular course where they might find reward, or 
at least hope for admiration. 

The Christians were, nevertheless, not an obscure 
sect. Their religion was so novel, so different from 
every other, and they were so zealous and successful 
in its cause, that it drew much attention wherever it 
was introduced. It was, indeed, greatly misunder- 
stood by the public at large ; and still more misrepre- 
sented by its particular enemies. Of these, the most 
bitter were the heathen priests, who felt their long 
unmolested repose disturbed by the growing desertion 
of their temples, and neglect of their services. 1 Still 
it must be remarked, that the Christians had suffered 
very little persecution, except slander, since the death 
of Nero, more than twenty years before. But the 
time drew near, when they were to encounter pro- 
scription, danger, and even death, from the civil 
authorities : It was but four or five years afterwards, 
that the jealousy of the emperor Domitan revived the 

Plinii Epist. 97. Lib. x. and Taciti Annal. Lib. xv. cap. 44. 
Afterwards, or towards the year 150, we find the most outrageous 
calumny heaped upon the Christians : they were commonly called 
Atheists ; and all kinds of licentiousness, even such as cannot, 
with decency, be mentioned, were charged upon them. To re- 
fute and expose these slanderous falsehoods, was a grand object 
with several of the early Christian writers. 



OF UNIVERSALIS^!. 



IT 



storm, which raged, with some considerable intervals, 
for more than two centuries, till the inauspicious con- 
version of Constantine gave to the church the king- 
doms of this world, and the glory of them. 

As to the system of doctrine held by the Christians, 
at this period, we can determine few of its particulars, 
if indeed it be proper to say that such a system then 
obtained. Their religion had not, as yet, been taught 
on any regular plan, like that of a body of divinity. 
Its fundamental truths, that Jesus Christ was the 
Messiah of the only true God, and the Saviour of 
men, and that he rose from the dead, necessarily en- 
grossed the chief attention of its professors, since these 
were the important facts they were obliged, almost 
continually, to urge on the people, and to defend 
against opponents. It is extremely difficult for us, 
who are brought up in a state of society where Chris- 
tianity is the original and universal religion, and where 
our disputes extend only to its particular tenets, to 
conceive of the simplicity in which the first preachers 
taught their faith, when, not the doctrine, but the 
truth itself, of that religion, was the principal point in 
dispute. When people were brought to acknowledge 
the mission of Christ, they were considered Christians, 
and, if their conduct became their profession, they 
were gladly received into the churches ; though fui> 
ther instructions were then given, or afterwards added, 
as opportunities offered. 2 Such being the liberal con- 

2 - This was the practice of the apostles. See the abstracts and 
accounts of those discourses which they addressed to unbelievers .* 
Acts il 14— 41. hi. 12—26. iv, 8—12. v. 29—32. viii. 30—38. ix. 20— 
22. x. 34—48. xiii. 16—41. xvi. 30—33. xvii. 2—4. .18, 22—34. xxiii, 
6, xxy. 18, 19, xxvi. xxviii. 23. 

2 * 



18 



THE ANCIENT HISTORY 



ditions on which the churches were gathered, they, of 
course, admitted persons of different, and even of 
opposite sentiments, on many points of doctrine. 
Both the Jewish and Gentile converts retained many 
of their respective prejudices. The consequence was, 
that disputes had already arisen among them, particu- 
larly concerning the obligation of the Mosaic rituals, 
on one hand, and the heathen schemes of philosophy, 
on another. The apostles themselves had, years be- 
fore, interposed to decide these controversies ; but 
even their authority could not remove the prejudices 
of the parties, nor silence their contentions. Some of 
the Gnostic believers, in particular, had, perhaps, gone 
so far, even at this early period, as to separate from 
the other churches, and to form themselves into dis- 
tinct bodies, which, however, must have been small 
and obscure. After all, we cannot suppose that the 
Christians, in general, had so soon obliterated from 
their faith the prominent features of the apostolic doc- 
trine ; especially, when we consider that most of the 
books of the New Testament were now in circulation, 
and that St. John still lived to be consulted, and to 
give instructions, 3 

II. Proceeding, now, to the particular subject of 
our history, we shall, in the present chapter, produce 
all that can be known, with any degree of certainty, 
of the views entertained by the Christians, from this 
time till A. D. 150, in relation to a future state of 
punishment and the eventful salvation of the world. 

3 - The principal facts in this section are illustrated at large by 
Mosheim, Eccl. Hist. Cent, i ; and more particularly in his Com- 
mentaries on the Affairs of the Christians, before the Time of 
Constantino, &c. Vol. i. VidaVs Translation. 



OF UNIVERSALISM. 



19 



The only direct light that gleams, at intervals, through 
the obscurity of the course we attempt, is derived from 
the few Christian writings of this period, which are 
still extant. These are the productions of those com- 
monly called the Apostolical Fathers, the first Christian 
authors, whose works have reached us, after the apos- 
tles themselves. They are the following : The First 
Epistle of Clemens Romanus ; seven Epistles of Ig- 
natius ; The Epistle of Poly carp ; The Epistle of 
Barnabas ; and The Shepherd of Hernias. Among 
these, we should perhaps insert a Relation of the 
Martyrdom oj Ignatius. 4 These writings, composed 
by men of little learning, and, for the most part, of as 
little judgment, are still valuable as they afford some 
notion of the state of the early Christians, and of their 
sentiments; but whoever expects to find them instruc- 
tive or edifying in other respects, will rise from their 
perusal in disappointment, if not with disgust. 

^„ III. The Epistle of Clemens Romanus 
a. d. 90, . . . \ / . . 

^ is distinguished for the respect it received 

from the ancient churches, some of which 

caused it to be read, in public, with the books of the 

New Testament. It may be allowed, at least, the 

4 - Of the Second Epistle of Clemens Romanus, so called, the 
genuineness is considered doubtful by Eusebius, Jerome, Du Pin, 
Mosheim, &c. and wholly denied by Photius, Archbishop Usher, 
Lardner, Brucker, Le Clerc, and others. Scarcely one admits it. 
There are other writings extant, ascribed to Clemens Romanus, 
but which are now universally considered forgeries, and of a 
much later date. I omit The Acts of Paul and Thecla, a forgery 
of the First Century, because our present copy is either a forgery 
upon that original one, or else so much interpolated that we can- 
not determine what is ancient. See Lardners Credibility, &c. 
Chap. Supposititious Writings of 2d Century. The reason why 
I place The Epistle of Barnabas, and The Shepherd of Hermas 
last in this catalogue, will be given under the accounts respec- 
tively of those works. 



20 



THE ANCIENT HISTORY 



commendations, that it is simple though diffuse, and 
that it contains but one instance, 5 of those absurd 
allegories which abound in the succeeding fathers. 
Clemens, who was bishop of the church at Rome, 
and perhaps the same person whom St. Paul had 
mentioned, (Phil. iv. 3.) wrote this Epistle to the 
Corinthian Christians for the purpose of dissuading 
them from their quarrels and seditions. Earnestly 
exhorting them to repent of their mutual envy and 
abuse, he adduces, among other considerations, the 
justice of God as a motive of fear, and the terrible 
destruction of Sodom and its neighboring cities,, as in- 
stances of the divine judgements on sinners. But it 
is remarkable that, in the whole of this Epistle, about 
as long as St. Mark's Gospel, there is no expression 
which discovers whether he believed in any future 
state of punishment, nor whether he held the salvation 
of all mankind. There are, indeed, two passages, 6 
which may naturally, not necessarily, be understood 
to intimate that those only who here serve the Lord, 
will hereafter be raised from the dead. 

~. In passing over the time at which St. 
a. d. 94 

? John is commonly supposed to have writ- 
t0 ' ten his Gospel and three Epistles, 1 we 
may remark that this last of the apostles died at 

5 - Clemens Rom. Epis. §12. Wake's Translation, The date 
of this Epistle was probably between A. D. 90 and 95. Lardner 
places it at A. D. 94 or 95 ; Junius, at 98 ; Baronius and Cote- 
lerius, at 92 ; Dodwell, Wake and Le Clerc, between 64 and 70. 

6 - Clem. Rom. Epis. § 26 and 49. In these two passages, 
Clemens expressly mentions the resurrection of those who " re- 
ligiously serve the Lord, " and are "made perfect in love ; " but 
nowhere does he assert the resurrection of others. 

7 - Of the Revelation, the date has been a point of much dispute ; 
but there seems, now, a general inclination to place it before the 



OF UNIVERSALISM. 



21 



Ephesus, aboul; the year 100. He left the world at 
a period when old errors appear to have been spread- 
ing in the church, and springing up there, under new 
forms and modifications. They were chiefly of the 
Gnostic kind, derived from the Oriental or Persian 
philosophy ; of which we shall have a more particular 
account to give in the sequel. 
ad 107 We come next to the famous 

? Epistles of Ignatius ; the genuineness of 
° r * which has been attacked and defended 
with an immoderate zeal altogether disproportioned to 
their worth, or real weight in any cause whatever. 
Though the question is still involved in uncertainty, 
we shall follow, with some doubt, what appears the 
prevailing opinion, that the seven, 8 translated by 
Archbishop Wake, are, in the main, genuine. They 
were written, if by Ignatius, while he was conducted, 
partly by sea, and partly by land, on a tardy journey 
of two thousand miles, 9 from Antioch to Rome, for 

destruction of Jerusalem. Of the date of St. John's other writ- 
ings, various opinions are entertained : Dr. Witherspoon places 
the Gospel at A. D.96, and the Epistles at 98 ; Lardner dates the 
Gospel at A. D. 68, and the Epistles at 80 and 85 ; by Le Clerc, 
the Gospel is assigned to the year 97, and the Epistles to 91 and 
92 ; Dr. Owen places the Gospel at about A. D. 69 ; Jer. Jones, 
at 97 ; and DuPin, at about A. D. 100. 

8# Even of these there are two very different copies : the larger, 
which is generally supposed to be much interpolated; and the 
shorter, which is followed by Wake, and almost universally pre- 
ferred. Mosheim, however, (Comment, on the Affairs of the 
Christians, &c.) seems to doubt whether the larger be not the 
genuine, if indeed either be so. 

9 - His route, real or fabulous, is traced from Antioch to Smyrna, 
Troas, over the ^Egean, into Macedonia and through Epirus, across 
the Adriatic and Tyrrhene Seas, to the mouth of the Tiber, and 
thence to Rome. The date of his journey, and of course of his 
Epistles and Martyrdom, is placed at A.D. 107, by DuPin, Tille- 
mont, Cave and Lardner ; but at A. D. 116, by Pearson, Lloyd, 
Pagi, Le Clerc and Fabricius. If the Relation of the Martyrdom of 



2*2 THE ANCIENT HISTOHY 



the execution of the sentence of martyrdom. He is 
said to have been bishop of the church in the former 
city, for about forty years, and to have been person- 
ally acquainted, in his younger days, with some of 
the apostles. His writings, however, are not always 
worthy of his advantages : they contain some puerile 
conceits, 10 betray a fondness for the eastern fables con- 
cerning the angelic world, 11 and abound with earnest 
injunctions of the most unreserved submission of rea- 
son, faith and practice, to the clergy ; whose authority 
is often likened, expressly, to that of God and Jesus 
Christ. 

We cannot ascertain the author's views concerning 
the final extent of salvation ; and the following is all 
that seems to refer to a future state of punishment : 
" Those that corrupt families by adultery, shall not 
" inherit the kingdom of God. If therefore they, who 
" have done this according to the flesh, have suffered 
<f death, how much more shall he die, who by his 
" wicked doctrine corrupts the faith of God, for which 
" Christ was crucified ? He, that is thus defiled, shall 
" depart into unquenchable fire, and so also shall he 
" that hearkens to him. " 1S In another place he says, 
in rather a disjointed paragraph, " Seeing, then, 
" all things have an end, there are these two indiffer- 
• £ ently set before us, life and death ; and every one 
•'shall depart unto his proper place." 13 In the same 

Ignatius, which professes to be written by eye-witnesses, be gen- 
uine, this disputed date is fixed at A. D. 116. See § 3. Wake's 
Translation. 

10 - Ignat. Epist. to the Ephesians, § 9. Wakes trans. n - Ditto. 
§ 19. and Epist. to the Trallians, § 5. 

I2 - Epist. to the Ephes. § 26. Vh Epist. to the Magnesians, § 5. 



OF UNIVERSALIS!*!. 



23 



unconnected manner, he says again, " For what re- 
" mains, it is very reasonable that we should return 
" unto a sound mind, whilst there is yet time to return 
unto God. " 14 Some of these passages may, indeed, 
have no allusion to a future state. It must, however, 
be remarked here, that the author evidently believed 
that certain heretics, and perhaps the wicked in gene- 
ral, will not be raised from the dead, but exist hereaf- 
ter as mere incorporeal spirits. 15 

The delation of the Martyrdom of Ignatius, writ- 
ten by Christian eye-witnesses of his trial and suffer- 
ings, contains nothing to our purpose ; we, therefore, 
proceed to 

a d 1 08 ^' r ^ lfie ^P^ e °f P°ty car p I a piece 
5 which evinces a more connected tenor of 
° r ' thought, than most of the ecclesiastical 
writings of that age. The author is guilty of one excep- 
tion to his usual moderation, when he exhorts his breth- 
" ren to be subject to the elders and deacons as unto 
" c God and Christ." 16 They who receive this epistle 
as Polycarp's, 17 generally suppose it to have been writ- 
ten soon after the martyrdom of Ignatius, to which it 
alludes. Polycarp was a bishop of the church at 
Smyrna, from about the year 100, till after the middle 
of the second century. He is said to have been the 
disciple of St, John ; and he was certainly regarded, 



14, Epist. to the Smyrneans, § 9. 15, Ditto § 2 and 7, compared 
with Epist. to the Trail. § 9. and Epist. to the Romans, § 2. 

is. Polycarp's Epist. § 5. Wake's trans. 17 - M. Daille and Blon- 
del reject it,and Mosheim says it "has merely a questionable claim 
to credit. " But Lardner, on the contrary, asserts that " there is 
scarce any doubt or question among learned men about the genu- 
ineness of this Epistle of Polycarp. " 



24 



THE ANCIENT HISTORY 



after the death of that apostle, as the most eminent of 
the Christians of Asia. 18 

The following is all that his Epistle contains in re- 
lation to the particular subject of this history : " To 
"whom [Christ] all things are made subject, both 
" that are in heaven and that are in earth ; whom 
" every living creature shall worship ; who shall come 
u to be the judge of the quick and dead ; whose blood 
" God shall require of them that believe not in him." 19 
Alluding, without doubt, to some of the Gnostic here- 
tics, he says, " Whosoever does not confess that Jesus 
" Christ is come in the flesh, he is antichrist. And 
" whoever does not confess his suffering upon the 
" cross, is from the devil. And whosoever perverts 
" the oracles of the Lord to his own lusts, and says 
" that there shall be neither any resurrection, nor 
" judgement, he is the first born of Satan. 20 " There 
may also be a question, whether the author does not 
intimate that the future resurrection depends on faith 
and obedience in this life, 21 

VI. To these dates succeeds a period of several 
years, from which no Christian writings have descended 
to us, except a few passages that happen to have been 
quoted, by later writers, from Papias, Quadratus and 

18 - By some he is considered the angel of the Church in Smyrna, 
addressed in Rev. ii. 8. This, however, is doubtful, as it is prob- 
able that he was not ordained till after the Revelation was written. 
19 - Polycarp's Epist. § 2. 20 - Ditto. § 7. 

81 • Ditto. § 2 and 5. If Clemens Romanus and Polycarp, as 
well as Ignatius, really held a partial resurrection, that of the 
saints exclusively, the circumstance would seem to prove that 
the notion of the Jews, or rather of the Pharisees, on this point, 
had spread pretty extensively in the church, — from Asia Minor 
to Rome — at this early period. That such was the notion of 
the Pharisees, about the end of the first century, see Josephus, 
&c. 



OF UNIVERSALIS*!* 



25 



Agrippa Castor ; of which, however, we shall take no 
notice, as they throw no light upon our subject. But 
it is important to remark that Papias and Aristides 
(a writer of whom nothing whatever remains) con- 
tributed, undesignedly to pervert the simplicity of 
Christianity ; and that they serve, at the same time, 
to exemplify the manner in which corruptions grew 
up in the church. The former, who was bishop at 

116 ^* era P°^ s > near Laodicea, is said to have 
devoted himself to collecting traditions of 
the apostolic doctrine and sayings ; but being very 
credulous and of a weak mind, he received, with little 
discrimination, whatever was related to him. Having 
thus formed a collection of idle tales and foolish no- 
tions, he published them to the world as the authori- 
tative instructions of Christ and his apostles. Such 
was the character of the church, that his work appears 
to have been well received ; and it certainly met with 
considerable credit among the succeeding fathers, who 
adopted some of its fictions. 22 But whatever were the 
injurious effects of these pretended traditions, the cause 
of truth sustained a much greater detriment from the 
gradual incorporation of the Grecian philosophy. Aris- 
tides was probably the first professed philosopher from 

1C1/I the Grecian schools, who took an active 

A. D. 1^4, . ... 

part in support of Christianity. But he 
appears, unhappily, to have clothed it in 
the robe of the Academy ; for Jerome informs us that 
the Apology, which he presented to the emperor 
Adrian, in behalf of the persecuted Christians, was 

22 - Du Pin's Bibliotheca Patrum, Article, Papias. Papias is said 
to have flourished about a. d. 116. 



26 



THE ANCIENT HISTORY 



full of philosophic notions, which were afterwards 
adopted by Justin Martyr. 23 The Grecian philoso- 
phy was nearly as incompatible with Christianity, as 
was the Oriental ; but the corruptions it introduced, 
flourished in the church, after a few years, as in a 
congenial soil ; and, in less than a century, gave a 
new appearance to the general mass of doctrine con- 
sidered orthodox. 

VII. The Epistle of Barnahas is the 
a. d. 131. next, in order ; unless, as has been hith- 
erto conjectured, it belong to the first 
century. 24 It w^as composed by some Jewish Chris- 

23 - Du Pin's Biblioth. Pat. Art. Q,uadratus and Aristides. The 
Apology of Aristides is supposed to have been written about a. 
d . 124, or 126. 

24 - It has been thought, by most of the learned, that the Epistle 
of Barnabas was written in the first century ; and, by many, that 
it was the work of that Barnabas who Was the companion and 
fellow-traveller of St. Paul. The latter opinion, Mosheim treats 
as scarcely worthy of a refutation ; and though it has had some 
eminent advocates, it is now generally discarded. That the for- 
mer opinion is also incorrect, I cannot but think sufficiently evi- 
dent from the Epistle itself. The author, speaking of the temple 
of Jerusalem, says, " Again, he [Christ] speaketh after this man- 
ner : Behold, they that destroy this temple, even they shall again 
build it up. And so it came to pass ; for through their wars, it is 
now destroyed by their enemies ; and the servants of their ene- 
mies build it up." (Barnab. Epist. § 16. Wake's trans.) It will 
not be questioned that the author here speaks, 1, of the destruc- 
tion of the temple after our Lord's ministry ; i. e. of its destruc- 
tion by Titus ; and 2, of attempts at rebuilding it by the servants 
of the Romans, at the time of writing this Epistle. Now, it is 
well known that there was no attempt at rebuilding either the 
temple or the city, after their destruction by Titus, till the time 
of Adrian, who, in a. d. 130, or 136, sent a colony to Jerusalem 
to restore the city, ar.d on or near the site of the former temple to 
erect a new one, which he afterwards dedicated to Jupiter. This 
circumstance appears to determine the date of the allusion quoted 
from Barnabas ; and I know of nothing that can be urged against 
the hypothesis. Irenoeus, about a. d.190, is the first who seems 
to have imitated any of the expressions of this Epistle ; and Clem- 
ens Alexandrinus, about a. d. 194, is the first who either men- 
tioned it, or formally alluded to it. It is but just, however, to 



OF UNIVERSALISM. 



tian, of mean abilities, for the purpose of representing 
the Mosaic law and other parts of the Old Testament 
as containing a hidden account of Christ and his relig- 
ion. The allegorical and mystical interpretations, of 
which the Epistle mostly consists, present an extra- 
ordinary instance of blind stupidity aiming at discov- 
eries. 25 

It is worthy of remark, that of all the Christian 
writings, after the sacred Scriptures., this Epistle is 
the first in which we find the word everlasting, or 
eternal, applied to suffering : Near the end, Barnabas 
represents two ways, that of light, over which the an- 
gels of God are appointed, and that of darkness, where 

apprize the reader, that my hypothesis is not supported by the 
authority of the critics ; who, so far as I know, have taken no no* 
tice of Barnabas's allusion to the rebuilding of the temple. Mos- 
heim supposes the Epistle to have been written in the first century ; 
and he agrees with Cotelerius, Brucker, Basnage and others, that 
its author was not the Barnabas who was the companion of St. 
Paul. Wake, Du Pin and Lardner, on the contrary, ascribe it to 
that Barnabas, and place its date about a. d.71 or 72. 

25. "Understand, children," says he, 44 these things more fully. 
44 that Abraham, who was the first that brought in circumcision, 
44 performed it, after having received the mystery of three letters, 
4 ' by which he looked forward in the spirit, to Jesus. For the Scrip*- 
" ture says that Abraham circumcised three hundred and eigh- 
" teen men of his house. But what, therefore, was the mystery 
44 that was made known unto him ? Mark, first, the eighteen ; and 
" next, the three hundred. For the numeral letters of ten and eight, 
" are IH, [i.e. the Greek Eta, or long E, — IE are the first two letters 
" of the word Jesus.] And these denote Jesus, And because the 
" cross was that by which we were to find grace, he therefore adds 
44 three hundred ; the numeral letter of which is T, [the figure of 
44 the cross.] Wherefore, by two letters he signified Jesus, and bv 
"the third, his cross. He who has put the engrafted gift of his 
" doctrine within us, knows that I never taught to any a more cer- 
44 tain truth ; but I trust that ye are worthy of it. *' — Barnabas's 
Epist. § 9c Such is one the important discoveries our author 
communicates ; and strange as it may seem, the later fathers, 
even those of undoubted learning, as Justin Martyr, Irenseus, 
Clemens fAlexandrinus, &c. appear to have been by no means 
insensible to the charms of this kind of nonsense. 



28 



THE ANCIENT HISTORY 



the angels of Satan preside ; and after describing the 
manner of walking in the way of light, he says, "But 
" the way of darkness is crooked, and full of cursing ; 
" for it is the way of eternal death with punishment, 
" in which they that walk meet with those things that 
" destroy their own souls. " 26 He afterwards adds, 
that he who chooses this part, shall " be destroyed, 
" together with his works. For this cause, there 
" shall be both a resurrection and a retribution. " 2T 
Throughout his Epistle he says nothing of universal 
salvation ; and it appears from what we have quoted, 
that he believed in a future state of punishment. But 
whether he thought it endless, cannot be determined ; 
since the word everlasting or eternal, was used, by the 
ancients, to denote indefinite rather than interminable 
duration. 28 

VIII. The last, as well as the longest, 
a. d. 150. of the works of the Apostolical Fathers; 

so called, is that effusion of second child- 
ishness, The Shepherd of HermasP It was written 
at Rome, by a brother of the bishop of that city ; but 
it betrays an ignorant and imbecile mind, in absolute 

26. Barnabas's Epistle, (Wakes translation,) § 18, and 20. 
27 - Ditto. § 21. 23 - See instances of this, in the next Chapter, 
Sect. iii. iv. xi. and in succeeding Chapters. 

29 - It had long been debated, by the learned, whether this work 
was composed in the first century, by that Hennas whom St. Paul 
mentions (Rom. xvi. 14.;) or in the second century, by another 
Hennas, brother to Pius, bishop of Rome. But the question was 
finally decided by a fragment of a work of the second century, 
brought to light by Muratori ; " Hennas, brother to Pius, bishop 
of the church in the city of Rome, " says this fragment, "wrote 
very lately, in our own time, The Shepherd, at Rome. " (See 
Mosheinr s Commentaries on the Affairs of the Christians, &c. 
eccl. hist, of the first Cent. § liv. notes n and o ; where may be 
found a full discussion of this point.) The date of The Shepherd^ 
therefore, cannot be much earlier than a. d. 150 } perhaps later. 



OF UNIVERSALIS*!. 



29 



dotage, Its object appears to have been to excite the 
professors of Christianity to more uprightness, zeal, 
and abstraction from the business as well as ordinary 
pleasures of life ; and this, the author strives to effect 
by relating pretended visions, and by introducing in- 
structions from an angel, who occasionally appeared 
to him, as he asserts, in the habit of a shepherd. But 
the conversation he attributes to his celestial visitants, 
is more insipid than we commonly hear from the 
weakest of men. 

Without extracting at full lenp-th, as in the case of 
former works, the several passages which seem to 
have relation to our subject, it is sufficient to ob- 
serve, that Hermas has left nothing to determine his 
views of the final extent of salvation, unless it may be 
gathered, from the following, that he totally precludes 
some of the human race from all prospect of bliss : He 
teaches that a Christian, if he sin after his baptism, 
may possibly be allowed the privilege of one repen- 
tance, and of one only ; 30 but that for such as aposta- 
tize from the faith, and blaspheme God, there is no 
return. They have forever departed from God ; and, 
in the next world, they are to be burned, together 
with the heathen nations. 31 Strong as such language 
may seem, those acquainted with the style of the ear- 
liest fathers, will not, perhaps, account it altogether 
decisive in favor of endless perdition. We may here 
add, that Hermas supposed that the apostles, after 
their death, went and preached to the souls of those 
who had led pure and virtuous lives before Christ's 

30 - Hermas. Bookii. Command, iv. § 3. compared with Book i. 
Vis. ii. § 2. Wake's trans. 31 - Ditto. Book iii. Simil. vi. § 2. 

3* 



30 



THE ANCIENT HISTORY 



birth ; and that, when those spirits had thus heard the 
gospel, they received water baptism, in some way un- 
told, and then entered the kingdom of God, 32 He 
also held an opinion, common during the remainder of 
this century, that the end of the world was near at 
hand. 33 

IX, We must now take our leave, for a while, of 
the orthodox believers, and go back to an account of a 
very different kind of Christians, concerning whom 
we have not even the feeble light hitherto enjoyed, to 
guide our investigations. No part of ecclesiastical 
a d 90 h^ st01 T * s involved in more uncertainty, 
^ -j^q ' than that of the Gnostic heretics of the 
first and second centuries. Their own 
writings, except a few unconnected fragments, are 
wholly lost ; and the only way of attaining to an ac- 
quaintance with them and their sentiments, is by com- 
paring the faulty, and often abusive, representations 
of their zealous opposers, with the imperfect knowl- 
edge we have of that system of philosophy, the Ori- 
ental, which they amalgamated with Christianity. 34 
That they believed in our Saviour as a messenger from 
the supreme God, and generally maintained their Chris- 
tian profession, amidst the opposition of the heathens, 
and the obloquy of the orthodox, is certain. But it 
is now considered equally certain, that they believed, 
some of them, that Jesus Christ was an angelic being 

32 Ditto. Book iii. Simil. ix. § 16. 33 Ditto. Book i. Vis. iv. § 3. 
34 I, however, attempt onl} T to follow our modern historian, Mo- 
sheim, (Ecclesiastical History ; and Commentaries on the Affairs 
of the Christians, &c.) with some help from Le Clerc, (Histor. 
Eccl. dnorum primorum, a Christo nato, Ssecnlorum) from Beau- 
sobre, (Histoire de Manichee, &c.) and from the History of Here- 
tics in Lardner's Works. 



OF UNIVERSALISM. 



31 



of the highest order, who came into our world with 
only the visionary appearance, not the real body, of 
a man ; and others, that Jesus alone was a mere man, 
with a human soul, into whom the Christ, a high ce- 
lestial spirit, descended at his baptism in Jordan. As 
to the object of our Saviour's mission, they are thought 
to have been perfectly agreed, that it was, not to sat- 
isfy any vindictive justice in Deity, whom they con- 
sidered infinitely good, but to deliver mankind from 
the oppressive service of the degenerate gods of this 
world, and to teach them how to subdue their passions, 
and approximate the supreme God, the fountain of 
purity and bliss. From the long-venerated, but chi- 
merical, philosophy of the Persians, they retained the 
notion, that the material world was formed, not by 
the Self-Existent, but by the inferior gods, called iEons, 
whose being was derived through a long and intricate 
succession, as most of them thought, originally from 
him. 35 This led them to regard the God of the Jews, 
the Jehovah of the Old Testament, as but a secondary 
being, the principal Maker of this world ; and they 
also concluded that he had apostatized, more or less, 
from the divine allegiance, inasmuch as he had arro- 
gated to himself the honors of worship, and as Christ 
had been sent to annul his ancient covenant, and to 
overthrow his institutions. From the same philosophy, 
they also received the doctrine of the eternity of mat- 
ter, and, especially, of its inherent, radical depravity. 

35 A few of them, perhaps, held two original, self-existent Be- 
ings, an evil, as well as a good, Deity. Such, it is conjectured, 
was the opinion of the Saturninians, about a. d. 120, and of the 
Marcionites, about a. d. 140. This is denied, however, in the 
History of Heretics in Lardner's Works, and also by Beausobre. 



32 



THE ANCIENT HISTORY 



Hence, they in general discarded the hope of the re- 
surrection of the material body, which, in their view, 
would hut perpetuate the bondage and corruption of 
the soul. With such dislike did most of them regard 
the body, that they prescribed an excessively rigid dis- 
cipline, a continual abstinence, in order to thwart all 
its inclinations, and to weaken, as far as possible, its 
power over the mind. 

Such are the common outlines of their several sys- 
tems, as laid down by the more judicious of modern 
historians, who at the same time confess and lament 
the impossibility of arriving at a satisfactory knowl- 
edge of the subject. All the Gnostics were charged, 
by their cotemporary orthodox adversaries, with being 
abandoned to licentiousness : a scandal which the 
heathens first poured forth, with unsparing liberality, 
upon the Grthodox themselves, and which these, in 
turn, have as freely passed over, and doubtless from 
nearly the same motives, to the successive orders of 
heretics. 36 

36 The licentiousness, alleged by the ancient orthodox against 
the Gnostics, is in part denied, and in part admitted, by Mosheim ; 
uniformly mentioned in terms of uncertainty, by Le Clerc ; and 
wholly denied, by Beausobre ; as it likewise is, in the History of 
Heretics, in Lardner's Works. The following remark deserves 
more consideration than, I fear, most readers will allow it : " This 
is certain, that as bad things were said of the primitive Christians, 
as were ever said of the ancient heretics by the Catholics, [Or- 
thodox.] Modern Reformers have been treated just in the same 
manner." (Hist, of Heretics, Book i. Sect. 8, Lardner's Works.) 
Look into Roman Catholic writings, and see all kinds of immoral 
tenets attributed to Luther, Calvin, and their associates ; turn to 
the Protestant side, and see the charge retorted with, at least, equal 
exaggeration ; hear the mutual criminations of our modern sects, 
who accuse each other of principles of conduct which they never 
thought of ; — and then judge how much credit should be given to 
ancient calumnies of the same sort ! It is a curious circumstance, 
that Mosheim, honored and admired, and standing on high ground 



OF UNIVERSALIS*!. 



33 



Some of the Gnostics, perhaps some of the earliest, 
believed in the endless exclusion of a part of mankind 
from the abodes of celestial lijdit. Bat, among those 
who arose in Egypt, there were many, particularly the 
Basilidians, the Carpocratians and the Valentinians. 
who are supposed to have held an eventual restoration, 
or rather transmigration, of all human souls to a heaven 
of purity and bliss. But this tenet they appear to 
have involved in other notions, wild and chimerical 
enough to warrant the suspicion of lunacy, were it not 
for the antiquity, prevalence, and reputation of that 
whimsical philosophy from which they were derived. 

About ^ ^ e ^ asmc ^ ans an ^ Carpocratians, 
it is said, believed that such souls as here 

A D 120 

follow the instructions of our Saviour, will, 
at death, ascend immediately to the happy mansions 
above ; while, on the contrary, such as neglect and dis- 
obey, will be condemned to pass into other bodies, 
either of men or of brutes, until by their purification 
they shall be fitted to share the joys of the incorporeal 
blest ; and so, all will finally be saved. 

The Basilidians were the followers of Basilides, a 
Gnostic Christian and Egyptian philosopher, who flour- 
ished, at Alexandria, in the early part of the second 
century, and died there between the years 130 and 
140. Though he believed in one self-existent, su- 
preme, and infinitely glorious God, yet he also held 
that depraved matter had been, in one state or another. 



in a national church, had never, himself, encountered the slander 
of bigotry ; while Le Clerc, an odious Arminian from Geneva, 
and Beausobre, a Protestant refugee from France, had ample ex- 
perience of its malignity and falsehood. The Unitarian Lardner 
was, in his own country, a heretic of the most obnoxious kind, 



34 



THE ANCIENT HISTORY 



coeval with him. In the past ages of eternity, the 
Deity produced from himself certain iEons, who, in 
their turn, begat others, but of a rank somewhat infe- 
rior, and of a lower station ; and from these again pro- 
ceeded a species still less exalted ; and so on, in suc- 
cession, till the celestial hierarchy extended from the 
highest heaven down to the vicinity of chaotic matter. 
The lowest race of iEons, whose station was the 
nethermost heaven, undertook, at length, to reduce 
the immense material mass below them from its pristine 
state of disorder ; and having formed it into a world, 
and made man with a body and a material soul, the 
Deity, approving their work, gave the creature a ra- 
tional mind, and thus completed the undertaking. He 
then allowed these iEons to divide, among themselves, 
the government of the world they had formed. But 
they, swerving by degrees from their allegiance, arro- 
gated at length divine honors from their creatures, 
grew ambitious of enlarging, each one, his dominion 
over the territory of the others, and for this purpose 
embroiled mankind in mutual wars, till the world be- 
came full of wretchedness and crime. Touched with 
compassion for the human race, God sent his Son, the 
first-begotton and noblest of ail the iEons, to take up 
his abode in the man Jesus ; and through him to 
proclaim the supreme, but forgotten, Deity, teach man- 
kind to abjure the authority of their tyrannical gods, 
especially of the God of the Jews; and to instruct 
them how to subdue their own sinful propensities, by 
mortifying their bodies, as well as by governing their 
passions. The God of the Jews, alarmed for his do- 
minion, excited the people to apprehend and crucify 



OF UNIVERSALISM, 



35 



Jesus ; but the Christ, the celestial iEon, had left his 
mortal associate, before the suffering man was nailed 
to the cross. 

Basilides taught that God is perfectly good, or be- 
nevolent, in the real sense of those words ; but that 
he inflicts the proper punishment for every wilful trans- 
gression, whether of saint or sinner. Reformation and 
improvement are the grand objects, as he appears to 
have held, of all punishment, and of all God's deal- 
ings with mankind. Though he treated the Old Tes- 
tament with respect, as the revelation of that dignified 
Being who governed the Jews, he did not think it in- 
spired by the supreme God : and he is accused of hav- 
ing also rejected some parts of the New Testament ; 
which, though possibly a fact, 37 cannot be satisfactorily 
proved. He wrote a Commentary, in twenty-four 
books, on the Gospels, which was soon answered by 
Agrippa Castor, a cotemporary orthodox writer. 

Basilides is thought to have been a grave and pious 
man, but bewildered by the fabulous theology of the 
East. He had a son, named Isidore, who wrote some 
books, long since lost, in illustration of their religious 
sentiments. His sect, though often assailed, and con- 
stantly opposed, both by the orthodox and the heathens, 
was for a long time numerous, chiefly in Egypt and 
Asia, After having continued about two hundred 
years, we find it broken and decreased in the fourth 
century ; and not long afterwards it probably became 
extinct, or perhaps coalesced with that of the Mani- 
cheans. 

37 Mosheim thinks it credible ; Beausobre sees no proof of it ; 
and in the History of Heretics in Lardner, it is disputed. Le 
Clerc says nothing about it. 



36 



THE ANCIENT HISTORY 



XL The Carpocratians, who arose at the same place 
with the Basilidians, and nearly at the same time, agreed 
with them in the final salvation of all souls, and did not 
greatly differ from them in the general system of their 
doctrine. Like them, they distinguished between the 
Deity and the inferior iEons who formed the world ; 
like them they believed that matter had existed from 
eternity, and was unalterably corrupt. They, indeed, 
arranged the iEons in a little different order ; and there 
is some reason to think that they considered our Sa- 
viour not a two-fold being, human and angelic, but a 
mere man, though of more than ordinary wisdom and 
divine intelligence. He was appointed by Deity to 
teach mankind the knowledge of the true God, and 
to abolish the dominion of the arrogant makers of the 
world. 

This sect, which seems never to have been large, 
spread chiefly in Egypt and the adjoining parts of Asia ; 
and disappeared, probably, in little more than a cen- 
tury after its rise, if indeed it had ever been altogether 
distinct from that of the Basilidians. Its founder was 
Carpocrates, a learned Egyptian, who flourished at 
Alexandria, about the year 130. His son, Epiphanes, 
was " a youth of vast attainments and extraordinary 
promise; but he died (about a. d. 140) at the early 
ao-e of seventeen, after ha vino; written several treatises 
on religious subjects. 

Their ancient opponents accuse the Carpocratians 
of avowing the most infamous principles of moral con- 
duct, and even of teaching that to arrive at heaven, 
we must devote ourselves to the perpetration of every 
vile and licentious abomination : a calumny which, by 



OF UNIVERSALISM. 



37 



its manifest exaggeration and malice, reflects only on 
its authors. Some of the learned allow no credit what- 
ever to any of the disadvantageous representations of 
their moral character ; while others refuse to exculpate 
them entirely, at the consequent expense of their or- 
thodox slanderers 38 . - 

^ ^ XII. A sect of Gnostics, still more 
whimsical than either of the preceding, 

a. d. 130. was the Valen tiiiians. Man, in their view, 
was a complex being, consisting, 1, of the outward 
visible body ; 2, of another body 39 within this, com- 
posed of fluid matter, and imperceptible to the senses ; 
3, of an animated soul, the seat of life and sensation 
only ; and 4, of a nobler, rational soul, of an angelic 
substance. The bodies, both outward and internal, 
were, they held, destined to perish ; of the two souls, 
the animal or sensitive could be saved by its obedi- 
ence, or by its negligence bring upon itself entire dis- 
solution at death ; but the rational, intelligent soul, 
will, in all cases, be admitted to the realms of bliss. 

In the immediate habitation of Deity, a world of 
pure light, infinitely above the visible heavens, the 
Valentinians placed thirty iEons, divided into three 



38 Among the licentious tenets charged on the Carpocratians, 
some of the most moderate and judicions of the moderns consider 
that of the community of women, as well as of goods, justly imputed 
to them. But in the Hist, of Heretics in Lardner, (book ii. ch. iii. 
§ 11,) this charge is, I think, fairly shown to rest on very uncer- 
tain authority, and to be, in itself, quite improbable. Mosheim, 
in his Commentaries, &c. has softened the features of the picture 
which he had drawn of the Carpocratians, in his Ecclesiastical 
History. 

39 At least, so asserts Mosheim, confidently ; from whom, there- 
fore, I dare not wander, though, in this particular, I follow him 
with much doubt. 



38 



THE ANCIENT HISTORY 



orders. These were guarded by Horus, stationed on 
the extreme verge of the high abode, to prevent them 
from wandering off into the immense regions of chaotic 
matter, which lay around. The iEons, in process of 
time, grew envious of the distinguished and peculiar 
felicity enjoyed by the first and highest individual of 
their number, who alone was adequate to comprehend 
the supreme Father's greatness. The ardent desire to 
attain the same divine pleasure, grew stronger and 
stronger among them ; until Wisdom, the youngest 
and weakest of all, became excessively agitated. From 
her ungovernable perturbations sprang a daughter, who 
was immediately expelled into the vast abyss of rude 
and unformed matter without. To allay the agitation 
thus raised in the celestial realm, the Deity produced 
two new iEons, who instructed the others to be con- 
tent with their limited capacity, and to unite all their 
powers in giving existence to a being called Jesus, the 
noblest and brightest of all the iEons. 

Scarcely was the tranquillity of the heavenly world 
thus restored, when the most violent commotions began 
to agitate the drear abyss without. The exiled daugh- 
ter of Wisdom had caught some glimpses of the eter- 
nal radiance, and attempted to reach the glorious 
abode ; but being continually repulsed by its watch- 
ful guardian, her passions of grief, anxiety and desire 
grew so violent, that the chaotic mass of matter, in 
which she was immersed, caught the strong contagious 
emotions, and became thereby separated into the dif- 
ferent elements which exist in our world* By the as- 
sistance of Jesus, she formed a being who is the Ma- 
ker and Governor of the material system. This Cre- 



OF UNIVERSALISM, 



39 



ator, having afterwards, with the same assistance, con- 
structed the visible Universe, took up his abode in the 
lowest heaven, far from the refulgent habitation of the 
Deity ; and here his vanity at length transported him 
to fancy himself the only true God, and to call upon 
mankind by his prophets, especially by those he sent 
to the Jews, to worship him as such. To extricate 
mankind from this delusion, to reveal the Deity to 
them, to teach them piety and virtue, was Christ, one 
of the iEons, sent into the world. He had a real body, 
but unlike those of mortals, since it was composed of 
an etherial substance ; and when he was baptized in 
Jordan, Jesus himself, in the form of a dove, descend- 
ed into him. Thus completely constituted, our Sa- 
viour proceeded, by means of instructions and mira- 
cles, to fulfil his ministry. The Maker of the world 
was enraged by his success, and procured his appre- 
hension and crucifixion ; but not till both Jesus and 
the spiritual, rational soul of Christ, had ascended, 
leaving nothing but the sensitive soul and the etherial 
body to suffer. Like other Gnostics, the Valentinians 
denied the resurrection of the body, and thought the 
authors of the Old Testament to have been under the 
inspiration of the Maker of this world. 

This sect sprung from, Valentine an Egyptian, who, 
after propagating his notions, for a while, in his native 
country, went, about a. d. 140, to Rome. Here, so 
many professors embraced his views, that the church 
became alarmed, and after thrice excommunicating 
him, succeeded in rendering his residence in Italy so 
uncomfortable, that he withdrew to the island of Cy- 
prus. In this delightful and luxurious region, his sect 



40 



THE ANCIENT HISTORY 



flourished in quiet ; and after his death, which occur- 
red a little subsequent, perhaps, to a. d. 150, it was 
widely diffused throughout Asia, Africa and Europe, 
and excited considerable fear in the orthodox churches. 
It existed about a century and a half ; when it seems 
to have sunk gradually into oblivion. Many of its 
sentiments, however, were then revived among the 
Manicheans, whom we shall consider in their proper 
place. 

XIII. In closing our account of these Gnostic sects, 
it is important to remark, that while the orthodox fa- 
thers warmly and bitterly attacked their respective sys- 
tems at large, it does not appear that they ever select- 
ed the particular tenet of the salvation of all souls, as 
obnoxious. What chiefly excited their resentment and 
animadversions, was, the distinction between Deity 
and the Maker of the world, the fables of the JEons, 
the views of our Saviour's person, the rejection of the 
Old Testament, and the denial of the resurrection and 
of a future judgement. 



CHAPTER II. 



[From A. D. 150, to A. D. 190.] 

A. D, 150. I. It has been seen that heresies had 
multiplied to such a number, and spread to such an 
extent, as to become troublesome 1 to the regular and 
approved churches, and that several sects had estab- 
lished separate communities, in distinction from the 
common body. Most of these were of the Gnostic 
kind, already described ; but there was one which, 
though small, deserves particular mention, as consist- 
ing of that part of the original church at Jerusalem, 
which continued to adhere, with unyielding tenacity, 
to the practice of the Mosaic rituals. This was the 
Nazarene, or Ebionite, sect, which is said to have held 
the simple humanity of Jesus Christ, 

But from the heretics, of all kinds, we return to a 
view of the doctrine and character of the orthodox. 
Many of the vulgar superstitions of the Gentiles pre- 
vailed among them, concerning magic, the demons, and 
the poetical regions of the infernal world ; and the 
Greek philosophy, which had begun to mingle with 
the doctrine of Christ, was rapidly modifying his re^ 
ligion to its own genius. The credulity of this age 
was rank, and the learning of the day , at least that of 
the fathers, was too superficial to prove either a pre- 

l - This is also evident from the circumstance that Agrippa Cas- 
tor wrote a book against the heretics some years before this period, 
and Justin Martyr a little after. 

4* 



42 



THE ANCIENT HISTORY 



ventive or remedy. Apostolical tradition also began 
to be urged as proof, when it was so far lost or cor- 
rupted, that even they who had been disciples of the 
apostles, adduced contrary traditions on one and the 
same point f and yet upon this very precarious au- 
thority some whimsical notions 3 prevailed. To these 
shades in the picture we must add a still darker: the 
Christians, orthodox as well as heretics, appear to have 
employed, in some cases, known falsehood in support 
of their cause. This pernicious artifice they are said 
to have derived from the Platonic paradox, that it is 
lawful to lie for the truth ; but one would suppose it 
to have been suggested by their own intemperate zeal, 
rather than by any maxims of philosophy. They had 
already begun to forge books in support of their reli- 
gion, a practice which, it is thought, they borrowed 
from the heretics ; and they now proceeded to propa- 
gate accounts of frequent miracles, concerning which, 
all the early writers, after the apostles, had been en- 
tirely silent. 

II. In the works which we have hitherto had under 
examination, we can discover little that belongs to the 
Grecian literature, except the language. All their 
fanciful conceits, all their extravagances, are either of 
that peculiar character which denotes a Jewish, at 
least Asiatic, origin ; or else are the natural effusions 
of a stupidity that needs not the aggravation of false 

-i. Yor instance, Polycarp visited Anicetus, bishop at Rome, 
about a. d. 150, and held an amicable discussion with him on the 
proper time for holding Easter. Each, according to Eusebius (Hist. 
Eccl. lib. v. cap. 24,) alleged Apostolical tradition for his own 
time, in opposition to that of the other; and they parted, but in 
friendship, without coming to an agreement on the point. 3 - The 
doctrine of the proper Millennarians. for instance. 



OF UNIVERSALIS*!. 



43 



learning to become ridiculous. But when we pass the 
Shepherd of Hernias, we enter immediately on a new 
series of ecclesiastical writings, in most of which the 
learning of the Athenian and Roman schools is divest- 
ed of its elegance, and converted into Christianity. 
This, however, we shall have occasion to exemplify, 
in detail, as we pursue the course of our examination. 

The works which have descended to us from the 
period embraced in this chapter, and which succeed 
those of the Apostolical fathers, are The Sibylline Or- 
acles, The Writings of Justin Martyr, A Relation of 
the Martyrdom of Poly car p, The Oration of Tatian, 
The Letter of the Churches of Lyons and Vienne, 
Two productions of Athenagoras, A Treatise of 
Theophilus, and The Worlcs oj Irenczus. 4 Through 
these, successively, we shall now attempt to follow the 
traces of our general subject. 

, III. It will be difficult to give the reader 

A D 1 50 

5 a just notion of the first work, The Sibyl- 
line Oracles. They were forged 5 by some 
Christian or Christians, generally supposed orthodox, 
for the purpose of convincing the heathens of the truth 
of Christianity. The Sibyls were regarded as very 
ancient prophetesses, of extraordinary inspiration 
among the Romans and the Greeks ; but their books, 

A - The book of one Hermias in ridicule of the heathen philos- 
ophers, though often mentioned among the ecclesiastical works 
of this period, is, by all, acknowledged to be of uncertain date, 
and by the best critics, considered the production of a later age. 

5 - Cave thinks the larger part of them composed about a. d. 130, 
and the rest before a. d. 192. Du Pin places them at about a. d. 
160. Lardner thinks they may have been completed before a. d. 
169, though possibly not till a. d. 190- Justin Martyr repeatedly 
refers to them ; and Hermas probably alluded to them in Book i. 
Vis. ii. 



44 



THE ANCIENT HISTORY 



if indeed they ever existed, had always been carefully 
concealed from the public, and consulted only upon 
emergencies, and by order of the government. The 
great veneration in which these supposed, but unknown, 
prophecies were held among the vulgar, induced some 
zealots to fabricate, under the name of the Sybils, and 
in the form of ancient, predictions, a narrative of the 
most striking events in sacred history, and a delinea- 
tion of what was then considered the Christian faith. 
This work, which we now have with some variations, 6 
in eight books of coarse Greek verses, was then sent 
into the world, to convert the heathens by the pretend- 
ed testimony of their own prophetesses. It appears to 
have been seized with avidity by the orthodox Chris- 
tians in general ; and all their principal writers, 7 quoted 
it as genuine, and urged its testimonies as indubitable 
evidence. It is mortifying to relate, that not one of 
them had the honesty to discard the fraud, even when 
it was detected by their heathen opponents. 

These books, though brought forth in iniquity, serve 
to show what sentiments existed among the Christians ; 
which is, indeed, about all the utility of the genuine 
productions of this period. They contain the earliest 
explicit declaration extant of a restoration from the 

6 - So think Fabricius, Du Pin, Le Clerc, Lardner and Jortin. 
Others speak of these now extant as wholly the same with the 
ancient. Paley, who by calling them Latin verses, betrays his 
ignorance of them, supposes they cannot be that ancient work, be- 
cause such is the manifestness of their forgery, that these could 
not have deceived the early fathers into a belief of their genuine- 
ness. (Evidences of Christian. Part. i. chap. 9, sect, xi.) But all 
this he might have said, with equal propriety, of the very passages 
which they actually quoted. They were probably aware of the 
forgery. 

Justin Martyr, Athenagoras, Theophilus of Antioch, Clemens 
Alexandrinus, and the succeeding fathers. 



OF UNIVERSALISM. 



45 



torments of hell. Having predicted the burning of 
the universe, the resurrection of the dead, the scene 
before the eternal judgement-seat, and the condemna- 
tion and horrible torments of the damned in the flames 
of hell, the writer proceeds to expatiate on the bliss 
and the privileges of the saved ; and he concludes his 
account by saying that, after the general judgement, 
" the omnipotent, incorruptible God shall confer an- 
" other favor on his worshippers, when they shall ask 
" him : he shall save mankind from the pernicious fire 
" and immortal agonies. This will he do. For, hav- 
" ing gathered them, safely secured from the unwearied 
" flame, and appointed them to another place, he shall 
" send them, for his people's sake, into another and an 
" eternal life, with the immortals on the Elysian plain, 
" where flow perpetually the long dark waves of the 
" deep sea of Acheron. " 8 

This work is full of the fables of the Greeks con- 
cerning demons, the Titans or giants, and the infer- 
nal regions. The world was to be burned about the 
end of the second century ; and then all mankind 
were to be brought forth from the secret receptacle of 
the dead to judgement ; when the vicious and abomin- 
able should be condemned to an intense fiery torment, 
repeatedly called everlasting, and described nearly in 
the language of the heathen poets, and with many of 
the circumstances they employed. The righteous, on 
the contrary, were to be received into a heaven too 
nearly resembling the Elysian fields f and finally, at 



8 - Sibyll. Oracula, Lib. ii. p. 212. Edit. Opsopcei, Paris. 1667. 

9 - All these particulars may be found in Lib. ii. 



46 



THE ANCIENT HISTORY 



their request, the damned were to be admitted to the 
like happiness. 10 

IV. We proceed to the writings of the 
a. d. 150, renowned Justin Marty r, the first professed 
to 162. scholar of the Grecian philosophy, whose 
productions in favor of the Christian reli- 
gion, have reached us. He was a native of Neapolis, 
the ancient Sichem, in Palestine. Having- sought, as 
he says, for the knowledge of the true God, among all 
the sects of heathen philosophers, he was at length 
converted to Christianity by the conversation of an old 
man ; but he never laid aside the peculiar habit nor 
the profession of the Platonists. He engaged, how- 
ever, with great zeal and boldness in the Christian 
cause, for which he wrote two Apologies : one, ad- 
dressed to the emperor Antonnius Pius, about a. d. 150 ; 
and the other, about a. d. 162, to the succeeding em- 
peror, Marcus Antoninus, and to the Senate and Peo- 
ple of Rome. 11 It was in this city, where he had 

10 * The following prophecy of the final conflagration may amuse, 
as a specimen of the author's descriptions : — Elijah, " the TFhes- 
" bite, shall descend from heaven, drawn in a celestial car, and show 
" the whole world the three signs of the destruction of all life. Woe 
u unto them whom that day shall overtake oppressed with the bur- 
" den of the womb ; woe unto them who shall nurse children at the 
w breast, and unto those who shall dwell near the waters. Woe unto 
u them who shall see that day ; for from the rising to the setting 
" sun, and from the north to the south, the whole world shall be 
" involved in the gloom of hideous night. A burning river of fire 
" shall then flow from the lofty heavens, and utterly consume the 
"earth, the vast ocean with its cerulean abyss, the lakes, rivers, 
M fountains, the horrible realm of Pluto, and the celestial pole. The 
" stars in heaven shall melt and drop down without form. All 
" mankind shall gnash their teeth, encompassed on every hand with 
" a flood of fire, and covered with burning cinders. The elements 
"of the world shall lie forsaken : the air, the earth, the heavens, 
" the sea, the light, and nights and days be confounded." Lib. ii. 
p. 201. 

n - Cave, Pagi, Basnage and Le Clerc date Justin's First Apolo- 



OF UN1VERSALISM. 



47 



resided for many years, that he sealed his testimony 
by martyrdom, about a. d. 166. 

His profession of philosophy, his extensive though 
cursory reading, together with his zeal and piety, se- 
cured him a great reputation and influence among the 
early fathers ; who lacked the discernment to perceive 
his want of sober judgement, and to discover the fre- 
quent mistakes into which his carelessness and gross 
credulity betrayed him. His early heathen notions, 
so far from being dispelled by the light of truth, were 
only modified to his new religion, and the more fondly 
cherished, as they now formed part of a system he 
deemed sacred. Angels, he supposes, once descend- 
ed to the earth, became enamored of women, and in 
their embraces begat the demons. These demons, 
learning from the prophets the principal events in 
Christ's life and administration, fabricated, in order to 
imitate them, the stories of the heathen mythology. 
They first instituted idolatry, and they still continue 
to allure men to practise it, by the mysterious tricks 
they perform for the purpose ; and all this, out of a 
desire to feed on the fumes of the sacrifices and liba- 
tions. 12 Nothing can be more wonderful than the va- 
ried part which the demons perform in this world, ac- 
cording to Justin's representations. They labored, how- 
ever, under one essential disadvantage ; for our author 
assures us, that the Christians, in his time, had the 

gy at about a. d. 140; Massuet 145; the Benedictine Editors and 
Tiliemont, Grabe, Du Pin, and Lardner, at 150. The Dialogue 
with Trypho was written certainly after the First Apology, but 
perhaps before the Second, which is generally placed at the year 
162. Besides these three works, some attribute to him Two Ora- 
tions to the Greeks, and the Epistle to Diognetus. 
12 - Justini. Apolog. Prim. p. 61. Edit. Paris. 



48 



THE ANCIENT HISTORY 



miraculous gift of exorcising them at pleasure, what- 
ever shape they assumed, or wherever they concealed 
themselves. 13 The reader cannot be surprised that 
Justin applied and explained Scripture without the 
least regard to rational interpretation. 

His opinion concerning the future state of mankind 
was, that all souls, after death, are reserved in a cer- 
tain place, probably the Infernum of the Latins, till 
the general resurrection and judgement ; when the 
righteous, whether Christians, or virtuous heathens, 
such as Socrates and Plato, shall reign with Christ a 
thousand years upon the earth, and then be admitted 
to the celestial mansions : 14 while the wicked shall be 
condemned to a punishment which he frequently calls 
everlasting. 15 In another place, however, he states 
his opinion upon this last point more particularly, and 
intimates that the wicked will be, eventually, annihila- 
ted : " Souls, " says he " are not immortal 

" I do not say that all souls will die. Those of the 
" pious will remain, [after death] in a certain better 
" place, and those of the unholy and wicked in a 
" worse, all expecting the time of judgement. In this 
" manner, those which are worthy to appear before 
" God, never die ; but the others are tormented so 
" long as God wills that they should exist and be tor- 

66 mented Whatever does, or ever will. 

" exist, in dependance, on the will of God, is of a per- 
" ishable nature, and can be annihilated so as to exist 
"no longer. God alone is self-existent, and by his 

13 - Apol. Secund.p. 45, and passim. l4 - Compare Dialog, cum. 
Tryph. p. 223, 306. Apol. i. p. 71. Apol. ii. p. 83, &c. Edit Paris. 
1742. 15 - Apol. Prim. pp. 57, 64, &c. 



OF UNIVERSAL1SM. 



49 



— 170, 



" own nature imperishable, and therefore he is God ; 
"but all other things are begotten and corruptible. 
" For which reason, souls both suffer punishment and 
"die." 16 

k d 160 V. It was about this period, that the 
venerable Polycarp closed an aged and 
pious life, amidst the flock he had long 
cherished in the great city of Smyrna, Exhausted 
nature was not permitted to expire in quiet decay : 
the persecuting heathens sought him out, and crowned 
him with the honors of martyrdom. The Relation of 
his Martyrdom, written, 17 if genuine, (of which there 
is some doubt,) by his own church at Smyrna, asserts 
that the martyrs hoped, by suffering the momentary 
torments of their cruel death, " to escape that fire 
" which is eternal and shall not be extinguished, ?n8 
And Polycarp himself is represented, by these writers, 
as reminding the Proconsul, before whom he was ar- 
raigned and tried, of " the fire of future judgement, and 
" of that eternal punishment which is reserved for the 
"ungodly." 19 

This Relation, though composed apparently by 
plain, unlettered men, and manifestly free from the 
corruptions of the Greek philosophy, affords a mode- 
rate specimen of the hyperbolical genius of that age. 
When the flame, say the writers, had arisen to a grea* 
height around Polycarp at the stake, it made a sort of 

16 - Dialog, cum. Tryphone, pp. 222, 223. 17 - Probably very 
soon after the martyrdom it relates ; which is placed by Pearson 
in a. d. 147 ; by Usher and Le Clerc, in 169 ; and by Petit in 175, 
Polycarp visited Rome while Anicetus was bishop there ; to which 
office the latter is commonly supposed to have been chosen as late 
as a. d. 150. 18 - Relation of the Martyrdom of Polycarp, § 2. 
Wake's trans. 19 - Ditto. § 11. 

5 



50 



THE ANCIENT HISTORY 



arch, leaving him untouched in the midst ; while a 
rich odor, as of frankincense, proceeded from his body, 
and filled the air. The executioners, perceiving that 
they could not destroy him by burning, struck him 
through with a dagger ; upon which, there came from 
him such a quantity of blood as extinguished the 
flames ! so that it " raised an admiration in all the 
" people to consider what a difference there was be- 
" tween the infidels and the elect. " 20 

VI. Tatian the Syrian, a convert from 
a. d. 170. heathenism, and the scholar perhaps of 
Justin Martyr, was a man of considerable 
Greek reading, and the author of several works ; of 
which only his Oration against the Gentiles is extant. 
In this he represents that such souls as have not the 
truth or knowledge of God, die with the body, and 
with it rise to judgement, at the end of the world : 
when they are to undergo " a death in immortality." 21 
To the wicked demons he assigns the same final 
doom. 22 It is sufficiently evident that Tatian was, at 
this time, like his master, a follower of the Platonic 
philosophy ; but towards the end of his life, he ran 
into heresy, by prohibiting marriage, wine ; and divers 
sorts of meat, and by advocating certain Gnostic no- 
tions. 

_ 0 VII. In order to embrace every thins: 

A. D. 1 4 3. . _ _ . J . ° 

that relates to our subject, we must insert 
a small fragment from an Ecclesiastical History by 

20 - Ditto. § 15, 16. 21 - Tatiani Assyr. Contra Graec. Orat. § 6 
and 13. inter. Justini Martyr. Opp. Edit. Paris. 1742. This Ora- 
tion is placed bv Lardner between a. d. 165, and 172. Ditto. 
§ 14. 



OF UN I VERBALISM. 



51 



Hegesijjjpus, an author whose works are lost, but who 
is suspected of having been a weak and credulous 
writer. He relates that when some of our Saviour's 
kindred were called before the emperor Domitian, and 
questioned on the nature of the kingdom they attribu- 
ted to Christ, they answered that it was merely celes- 
tial, and would take place " at the consummation of 
" the world, when be should come in his glory, judge 
" the quick and the dead, and reward every man ac- 
" cording to his works, " 23 This is evidence of the 
opinion of Hegesippus ; but no historian would proba- 
bly consider it as authority for the sentiments of the 
persons he mentions. The whole story, indeed, is 
now suspected to be fabulous. 

VIII. The Epistle of the Churches of 
a. d. 177, Lyons and Vienne, generally supposed to 
have been written by the celebrated Ire- 
naeus, claims but a moment's attention. It gives an 
affecting, though perhaps exaggerated, account of the 
terrible persecution and martyrdom of the Christians 
in those two cities, during the reign of the philosophi- 
cal emperor, Marcus Aurelius. Of one Byblias, who 
through weakness had at first recanted her profession, 
it is said, " that in the midst of her torments she return- 
" ed to herself, waking as it were out of a deep slum- 
" ber ; and, calling to recollection the everlasting 
" punishment in hell, she, against all men's expecta- 
" tions reproved her tormentors. " 24 

Eusebii Hist. Eccl. Lib. iii. cap. 20. Lardner dates Hegisip- 
pus's History at the year 173. 24 « Eusebii Hist. Eccl. Lib. v. cap. 
1. Lardner assigns this Epistle to the year 177. 



52 



THE ANCIENT HISTORY 



IX. The next, in order, is Athenagoras, 
a. d. 178, an Athenian philosopher, and probably, for 

to 180. a while, master of that distinguished Chris- 
tian seminary, the Cathetical School at 
Alexandria in Egypt. He addressed to the emperor 
Marcus Aurelius and to his son Commodus, an Apol- 
ogy for the Christians ; and wrote a Treatise on the 
Resurrection, to remove the objections of the heathens, 
and to convince them, by philosophical reasonings, of 
the truth of that doctrine. 25 Though a learned and 
polite writer, little notice was paid him or his works, 
by the early fathers. 

He asserts, as a manifest fact, " that the righteous 
" are not properly rewarded, nor the evil punished in 
" this life ; " and contends that there is no ground on 
which we can vindicate the ways of providence and 
maintain the justice of God, but by admitting a resur- 
rection to a state of retribution. At the future judge- 
ment, says he, " rewards and punishments will be dis- 
tributed to all mankind, as they shall have conducted 
" well or ill ; ? ' 26 but of the duration of suffering, he has 
left us no intimation. He treats it as a conjecture not 
unreasonable, that the brutes may be raised from the 
dead, and afterwards remain in subjection to man. 27 
As to the mode of governing the universe, he says 
that God has distributed the angels into different 
ranks and orders, and assigned to them the care of 
the elements, the heavens and the earth. But the 
angel presiding over matter, together with some others, 

25 - His Apology is placed by Lardner at a. d. 178. His Trea- 
tise on the Resurrection was probably written soon afterwards. 
26, Athenagor. De Resurrec. passim, particularly the latter part. 
27 - Ditto, near the beginning. 



OF UNITERSALISM. 



53 



swerving from their allegiance, fell in love with women, 
and begat giants ; and those rebellious spirits now wan- 
der up and down the earth, opposing God, exciting lust^ 
and upholding idolatry, that they may refresh themselves 
with the blood and steam of sacrifices. 28 

X. Of Theophilus, bishop of the church 
a* d. 18L at Antioch, we have only one work remain- 
ing : a Treatise in defence of Christianity, 
addressed to Autolycus, a learned heathen. There 
are sufficient proofs that our author was a man of at 
least a moderate degree of learning ; but, like most of 
his cotemporaries, he was unhappily an admirer of the 
Greek philosophy, and a believer in the vulgar super- 
stitions of the heathens. His views of future punish- 
ment may be discovered from his exhortation to Auto- 
lycus : " Do you also studiously read the prophetic 
" Scriptures, and you will have their safer light to 
" enable you to shun everlasting torments. " Soon 
afterwards he says of the unbelieving and abominable, 
" to them there will be wrath and indignation, tribu- 
" lation and anguish ; and, at length, everlasting fire 
" shall be their portion. " 29 

XL We arrive, at last, to the writings of 
a. d. 180, that distinguished father, Irenasus. Born 
— 190. and brought up in Asia Minor, he attend- 
ed, in his youth, the discourses both of the 
venerable Polycarp, and of the weak, injudicious Pa- 
pias ; and perhaps enjoyed some acquaintance with 
those who had personally conversed with the apostles. 

28 - Athenagorae Legat. passim. 29 - Theophili Ad Autolycum 
Lib. i. cap. 14. inter Justini Martyr. Opp. Edit. Paris. 1742. Lard- 
ner places this work at a. d. 181. 

5* 



54 



THE ANCIENT HISTORY 



At a later period, he travelled into France, where his 
piety, his zeal and devotedness to the Christian cause, 
together with his acquirements, rendered him conspicu- 
ous, and at length elevated him to the bishopric of the 
church at Lyons, But notwithstanding his advantages, 
there are some things in his principal remaining work, 
that Against Heresies, 20 which show that he yielded 
to the whimsical and credulous turn of the a£e, if, in- 
deed, that were not also his own character. Miracles, 
he says, even from raising of the dead, down to the 
casting out of demons, were, in his time, frequently 
performed by Christians ; so that it was " impossible 
" to reckon up all the mighty works which the church 
" performed, every day, for the benefit of the na- 
" tions. " 31 With the Greek philosophy he was not 
so thoroughly imbued as Justin Martyr ; but like his 
master Papias, he was an assiduous collector of apos- 
tolic traditions, and upon their authority advanced 
some very ridiculous notions. 32 Some of his allegori- 
cal interpretations 33 of Scripture, too, will almost vie, 
in contemptible absurdity, with those of Barnabas. 
We remark, once for all, that the principal writers, 
mentioned in this chapter, agreed in attributing to the 

30 - This is a large, and in many respects a valuable work. Lard- 
ner thinks it to have been published not long after a. d. 178; Til- 
lemont, near 190. 31 * Iren. Adv. Hseres. Lib. ii. cap. 57. 

32 In the Millennium, says he, " there shall grow vineyards, 
" having each ten thousand vine-stocks ; each stock ten thousand 
u branches j each branch ten thousand twigs ; each twig ten thou- 
" sand bunches ; each bunch ten thousand grapes ; and each grape, 
*' when pressed, shall yield twenty-five measures of wine. And 
" when any of the saints shall go to pluck a bunch, another bunch 
" will cry out, / am better, take me, and bless the Lord through me. 
" In like manner, a grain of wheat sown, shall bear ten thousand 
" stalks ; each stalk ten thousand grains ; and each grain ten thou- 
sand pounds of the finest flour," &c. Ditto. Lib. v. cap. 32, 33. 

33 - Ditto. Lib. iv. cap. 42, and Lib. v cap. 8. 



OF UNIVERSAL ISM. 



55 



Scriptures a double meaning, a hidden and mysterious 
as well as the obvious. 

With regard to the future state, Irenaeus supposes 
that souls are, after death, reserved in some invisible 
place, the Infernum of the heathens, whither Christ 
went and preached after his crucifixion, delivering 
from sufferance those who then believed. At the end 
of the world, which was then very near at hand, all 
were to be raised, and brought to judgement, when 
the just should be admitted to a thousand years' reign 
with Christ upon earth, preparatory to endless bliss in 
heaven ; but the unjust should be sent into inextin- 
guishable and eternal fire. 34 Here, he appears to 
think, they will be annihilated : he contends that 
souls, or spirits, like all other created things, depend 
entirely on the upholding providence of God, for their 
continuance in being, and that they can " exist only 
" so long as he wills. For, 55 says he, " the principle 
" of existence is not inherent in our own constitution, 
" but given us by God. He who cherishes this gift, 
" and is thankful to the Giver, shall exist forever ; but 
" he who despises it, and is ungrateful, deprives him- 
" self of the privilege of existing forever. Therefore, 
" the Lord said, If ye have not been faithful in a 
" little, who will give you that which is greater ? 
66 (Luke xvi. 11,) signifying that he who is ungrateful 
" to him for this temporal life, which is little, cannot 
" justly expect from him an existence which is end- 
less." 35 

It is in Irenaeus that we meet with the earliest at- 



34 - Ditto. Lib. v. cap. 27, and passim. 35 - Ditto. Lib. ii.cap.64. 



56 



THE ANCIENT HISTORY 



tempt at a formal summary of the faith, as held by 
the orthodox churches in general ; and, on this ac- 
count, his compendium, or creed, is worthy of particu- 
lar notice. In opposition to all the peculiar tenets of 
the Gnostics, he brings forward the system of doctrine 
which, he says, " the churches, though scattered into 
" all parts of the world, had received from the apostles 
" and their disciples, viz : To believe in one God, the 
" omnipotent Father, who made heaven, and earth, 
" and sea, and all things in them ; in one Jesus 
" Christ, the Son of God, incarnate for our salvation ; 
"and in the Holy Ghost, who by the prophets de- 
" clared the dispensation and coming of Christ, his 
"birth of a virgin, his suffering, his resurrection from 
" the dead, his ascension in his flesh into heaven, and 
"his coming from heaven, in the glory of the Father, 
" to gather together in one all things, and to raise the 
"flesh of all mankind ; that unto Jesus Christ, our 
" Lord, Saviour and King, according to the will of the 
"invisible Father, every knee shall bow, of things in 
" heaven, on earth, and under the earth, and every 
" tongue confess to him \ and that he shall pass a 
" righteous sentence upon all, and send wicked spirits, 
" and the angels who have transgressed, together with 
" ungodly men, into eternal fire, but give life to the 
"righteous who have kept his commandments and 
" abided in his love, either from the beginning or after 
"repentance, and confer on them immortality and 
" eternal glory, " 36 

36 - Ditto. Lib. i. cap. 2. Any'one, acquainted with the notions 
attributed to the Gnostics, will instantly perceive that almost 
every expression in this Creed was framed for the purpose of op- 



OF UNIVERSALIS^. 



57 



XII. A great number of the early productions of 
the orthodox, and all those of the heretics, are lost, 
and with them, probably, some information upon the 
subject of our history. Thus far, however, we have 
carefully produced, in his own words, the opinion of 
every writer whose works are extant ; w r e have also 
presented the views of the heretics upon this subject, 
from the best authorities within our reach. To the 
reader belongs the privilege of such reflections as the 
whole case, now pretty fully laid before him, may 
suggest. We will, however, observe that of the or- 
thodox writers, nearly all allude to, or expressly assert, 
a future judgement and a future state of punishment : 
seven 37 call it the everlasting, the eternal fire or tor- 
ment ; but out of these there are three who certainly 
did not think it endless, since two of them believed 
the damned would be annihilated, and the other assert- 
ed their restoration to bliss. What were the views of 
the remaining four, upon this point, cannot be deter- 
mined ; for the circumstance just mentioned shows 
that their use of the word everlasting, is no criterion. 
The others whom we have passed in review, are silent 
with regard to the duration of misery. 

To these remarks we must add, that such of the 
Gnostic sects as are thought to have held the salvation 
of all souls, still flourished ; but their history, like that 
of all the heretic Christians, is obscure and uncertain. 

posing them ; as, indeed, is intimated by the manner in which 
Irenseus introduces the passage. 

37 - Viz. Barnabas, Hermas, Sibylline Oracles, Justin Martyr, 
Relation of Polycarp's Martyrdom, Theophilus, and Irenaeus in 
the Letter of the churches of Lyons and Vienne, and in his work 
Against Heresies. 



58 



THE ANCIENT HISTORY 



Among the orthodox, it is curious to mark the seem- 
ing progress of sentiment concerning a future state of 
punishment. In their earliest writings, that of Clem- 
ens Romanus and those of Ignatius, it is either wholly 
omitted, or else expressed in the most indefinite man- 
ner. Afterwards, we find it introduced as a peculiar 
motive of terror : and as such, it became more and 
more employed, even by those who expressly assigned 
it a limited duration. When the Greek philosophy and 
heathen superstitions began to prevail in the church, 
they soon succeeded in delineating the whole topogra- 
phy of the infernal realm, pointed out its divisions, de- 
scribed its regulations, and familiarly brought to light 
all its secrets. 

XIIL In the succeeding parts of our work, we shall 
not detain the reader with a distinct paragraph for 
every ecclesiastical writer ; but direct our attention 
more specially to those authors and those parties who 
advocated the salvation of all mankind. In the mean 
time, however, we shall aim at such a representation 
as will afford a general view of the notions entertained 
by the church at large, in relation to that subject. 



CHAPTER III. 



[From A. D. 190, to A. D. 230.] 



A. B. 19G, 

to 196. 



I. Of all the Christian fathers, before 
Qrigen, the most illustrious writer and the 



most renowned for extensive erudition, was 
Clemens Alexandrinus. That he was a Universalist, 
is alleged against him by some of the learned, 1 and 
sufficiently manifest from his works yet extant ; though 
he seldom affords us a direct and positive assertion to 
this point. He uniformly asserts, however, and illus- 
trates, the universal goodness of God, the benevolent 
nature of justice, the salutary design and effect of pun- 
ishment both here and hereafter, the purification of the 
damned in hell, and their deliverance from suffering 
and exaltation to bliss. 

*• The learned and orthodox Daille says " It is manifest, 
throughout his works, that Clemens thought all the punishments 
that God inflicts upon men, are salutary, and executed by him 
only for the purpose of instruction and reformation. Of this kind 

he reckons the torments which the damned in hell suffer 

From which we discover that Clemens was of the same opinion 
as his scholar Origen, who every where teaches that all the pun- 
ishments of those in hell are purgatorial, that they are not end- 
less, but will at length cease, when the damned are sufficiently 
purified by the fire." Dallsei De Usu Patrum Lib. ii. cap. 4, 

Archbishop Potter, having spoken of Origen's belief in the sal- 
vation of all the damned, and of the devil himself, adds, "from 
which opinion Clemens does not appear to have differed much, 
as he taught that the Devil can repent, and that even the most 
heinous sins are purged away by punishments after death." V. 
Not. in Clem. Alexand. Strom. Lib. vi. p. 794. Edit. Potter 1715 



60 



THE ANCIENT HISTORY 



" The Lord," says he, " does good unto all, and 
" delights in all ; as God, he forgives our transgres- 
" sions, and as Man, he teaches and instructs us that 
" we may not sin. Man is, indeed, necessarily dear 
"to God, because he is his workmanship. Other 
" things he made only by his order ; but man he form- 
" ed by his own hand, and breathed into him his dis- 
" tinguishing properties. Now, whatever was created 
" by him, especially in his own image, must have been 
" created because it was, in itself, desirable to God, or 
" else desirable from some other consideration. If man 
" was made because he was in himself desirable, then 
" God loved him on account of his being good ; and 
" there certainly is in man that lovely principle, called 
" the breath or inspiration of God, But if it was on 
"account of some other desirable end that he was 
" made, then there could be no other reason why God 
" should create him, than that God could not otherwise 
" be a benevolent Maker, nor his glory be displayed 

" to the human race And, indeed in either 

" case, man may be said to be, in himself considered, 
" a being desirable to God, since the Almighty, who 
" cannot err in his undertakings, made him just such 
" as he desired. He therefore loves him. How in- 
" deed is it possible that he should not love him, for 
" whom he sent his only begotten Son from his own 
" bosom ?" 2 

There are some, 3 says Clemens, who deny that the 
Lord is good, because he inflicts punishments and en- 

2 - Clem. Alexand. Paedagog. Lib. i. cap. 3, pp. 101, 102, Edit. 
Potter. *• Clemens here alludes to the Mareionitcs, a Gnostic 
sect. 



OF UNIVERSALIS!*!. 



61 



joins fear. To this he replies, that " there is nothing 
" which the Lord hates ; for he cannot hate any thing 
" and yet will that it should exist ; nor can he will 
" that any thing should not exist, and at the same time 
" cause it to exist. Now as the Lord is certainly the 
" cause of whatever exists, he cannot, of course, de- 
" sire that any thing which is, should not be ; and 
" therefore he cannot hate any thing, as all exist by his 
" own will." And, continues our author, " if he hates 
" none of his works, then it is evident that he loves 
" them all, especially man above the rest, who is the 
" most excellent of his creatures. Now whoever loves 
" another, wishes to benefit him ; and therefore God 
" does good unto all. He does not merely bless them 
" in some particulars, yet neglect all care over them ; 
" he is both careful for them, and solicitous for their 
" interests." Consistently with this, Clemens adds, 
that God's "justice is, of itself, nothing but goodness ; 
" for it rewards the virtuous with blessings, and con- 
" duces to the improvement of the sinful. There are 
" many evil affections which are to be cured only 
" by suffering. Punishment is, in its operation, like 
"'medicine: it dissolves the hard heart, purges away 
"the filth of uncleanness, and reduces the swellings of 
" pride and haughtiness ; thus restoring its subject to a 
"sound and healthful state. It is not from hatred, 
" therefore, that the Lord rebukes mankind." 4 

" It is the office of salutary justice," says he, in 
another place, " continually to exalt every thing to- 

4 - Psedagog. Lib. i. cap. 8, pp. 135—140. N. B. I have at- 
tempted in this paragraph to compress the argument which Clem- 
ens, in his diffuse style and rambling method, spreads over two 
or three folio pages. 

6 



62 



THE ANCIENT HISTORY 



" wards the best state of which it is capable. Inferior 
" things are adapted to promote and confirm the salva- 
H tion of that which is more excellent ; and thus, what- 
" ever is endued with any virtue, is forthwith changed 
u still for the better, through the liberty of choice, which 
" the mind has in its own power. And the necessary 
" chastisements of the great judge, who regards all with 
"benignity, make mankind grieve for their sins and 
" imperfections, and advance them through the various 
"states of discipline to perfection," 5 " Even God's 
" wrath, if so his admonitions can be called, is full of 
" benevolence, towards the human race ; for whose 
" sake the word of God was made man." 6 

The same means which are employed upon earth 
for the salvation of the living, are introduced, he thinks, 
among the dead, for the restoration of such as died, 
either in sin, or in ignorance and unbelief of Jesus 
Christ : " Wherefore, our Lord," says he, " preached 
" also in the regions of the dead ; for says the Scrip- 
" ture, the Grave saith to Destruction, His counte- 
" nance we have not indeed beheld, hut we have heard 
" his voice. (Job xxviii. 22.) It is not the place, 
"however, which thus speaks, but its inhabitants, 
" who had delivered themselves to destruction. They 
" heard the divine power and voice. And, indeed, 
"who can suppose that souls [which departed igno- 
" rant of Christ] are indiscriminately abandoned, the 
" virtuous and the vicious, to the same condemnation, 
" thus impeaching the justice of providence ? Does 
" not the Scripture inform us that the Lord preached 

5 Stromat. Lib. vii. cap. 2, p. 625. 6 Psedagog. Lib. i. cap. 
8, p. 142, 



OF UNIVERSALIS*!. 



63 



" the gospel even to those who perished in the deluge, 
" and were confined in prison V We have already 
" shown that the apostles also, as well as their Master, 

" preached the gospel to the dead Wherefore, 

" since the Lord descended to hell for no other ptfcr- 
" pose than to preach the gospel there, he preached it 
" either to all, or only to the Jews. If to all, then 
u all who believed there, were saved, whether Jews or 
" Gentiles. And the chastisements of God are salu- 
" tary and instructive, leading to amendment, and pre- 
" ferring the repentance to the death of the sinner ; 
" especially as souls in their separate state, though 
u darkened by evil passions, have yet a clearer dis- 
" cernment than they had whilst in the body, because 
" they are no longer clouded and encumbered by the 
" flesh." 8 Again he says, " Now all the poets, as well 
" as the Greek philosophers, took their notions of the 
" punishments after death, and the torments of fire, 
" from the Hebrews, Does not Plato mention the 
" rivers of fire, and that profound abyss which the 
" Jews call Gehenna [hell,] together with other places 
" of punishment, where the characters of men are re- 
"formed by suffering ?" 9 It would, however, far ex- 
ceed our limits, to transcribe the passages of this kind, 
scattered through his writings. 

7 - In another place Clemens says, " If, therefore, the Lord 
u preached the gospel to those in the flesh, lest they should be 
"unjustly condemned, was it not necessary, for the same reason, 
" that he should preach also to those who had departed this life 
" before his advent ? And as all sinful flesh perished in the de- 
u luge, we must believe that the will of God, which has the pow- 
" er of instructing and operating, confers salvation upon those 
"who are converted by the punishments inflicted on them." 
Stromat. Lib. vi. cap. 6, p. 766. 8 - Stromat. Lib. vi. cap. 6, pp. 
763, 764. 9 - Ditto. Lib. v. cap. 14, p. 700. 



64 



THE ANCIENT HISTORY 



With regard to the actual salvation of all, the fol- 
lowing are, perhaps, his fullest and most pointed ex- 
pressions : " How is he a Saviour and Lord, unless he 
"is the Saviour and Lord of all? He is certainly the 
" Saviour of those who have believed ; and of those 
" who have not believed, he is the Lord, until by be- 
" ing brought to confess him, they shall receive the 
"proper and well adapted blessing for themselves." 10 
"The Lord," says he, "is the propitiation, not only 
"for our sins, that is, of the faithful, but also for the 
"whole world: (1 John, ii. 2,) therefore he indeed 
" saves all ; but converts some by punishments, and 
" others by gaining their free will ; so that he has 
" the high honor, that unto him every Jcnee should 
" bow, of things in heaven, on earth, and under the 
" earth ; that is, angels, men and the souls of those 
" who died before his advent." 11 

It is remarkable that Clemens, unlike the other an- 
cient fathers who believed in Universalism, appears to 
have avoided the use of such epithets and phrases as 
everlasting, forever and ever, he. in connexion with 
misery. 12 Nor does he seem to have considered the 
torments of the future state very intense, as he never 
represents them in terrific colours, nor dwells upon 
them in a way to agitate the mind with fear. When 
the virtuous Christian dies, he enters upon a mild and 

10 - Stromat. Lib. vii. cap. 2, p. 833. n - Fragmenta. Aduni- 
brat. in Epist. I. Johan. p. 1009. 

12, The only place I recollect in all his writings, where any 
of these controverted words is applied to suffering, is Pasda- 
gog. Lib. i. cap. 8, end, p. 14.2. "When the soul has ceased to 
" grieve for its sins, it is not, even then, a time to inflict upon it 
" a deadly wound, but a healthful one, that by a little grief it may 
" escape eternal death " 



OF UNIVERSALISM. 



65 



grateful discipline, which, by purifying his remaining 
faults, and supplying his imperfections, elevates him 
by degrees from glory to glory, till he arrives at per- 
fection ; but the soul of an obstinate and vicious infidel 
must, before it can begin this sublime progression, be 
overcome by severe chastisement, instructed in the 
knowledge of the truth, and brought to control its pas- 
sions. 

II. Like all the early fathers, Clemens held the en- 
tire and permanent freedom of the human will, con- 
trary to the present orthodox doctrines of predestina- 
tion and irresistible grace. Original sin and total de- 
pravity were unknown in his day ; as was also the 
modern notion of a mysterious and counter-natural 
conversion. 

We may now complete the sketch of his general 
system of doctrine : God, infinitely and unchangeably 
good, created man upright, though not entirely 13 per- 
fect, and designed him, and all his posterity for hap- 
piness. But Adam, being left to his own free will, 
yielded to temptation ; and so, in a greater or less de- 
gree, have all mankind, after him. As the world thus 
began to grow up in ignorance of God, in the indul- 
gence of vice, and under the dominion of evil demons, 
the Almighty gave, as a partial remedy, the Law to 
the Jews, and Philosophy to the Gentiles, in order to 
restrain and enlighten them in some measure, till the 
coming of Christ. Both the Law and Philosophy 
were preparatory to the Gospel ; and so far as the 
Hebrews on the one hand, and the Heathens on the 

13 - Stromat. Lib. iv. cap. 23, p. 632. 

6* 



66 



THE ANCIENT HISTORY 



other, preserved and practised their respective systems 
in their pristine purity, they were justified ; though 
they still needed evangelical faith to prepare them for 
heaven. At length, God was pleased to grant the 
world a full and perfect revelation ; and for this pur- 
pose sent his Son, the Jehovah of the Old Testament, 
who was a divine agent, begotten of the Father. He 
came, not to appease God, whom Clemens thought 
originally and immutably good, but to crush the pow- 
er of the evil demons, to impart the knowledge and 
commend the love of God to mankind, to instruct them 
in religion, and to set before them a perfect example 
of piety and virtue. That these means may become 
effectual to the salvation of the world, the whole sys- 
tem of divine providence and government is constantly 
directed to induce mankind to believe and obey their 
Saviour. To this end, the Almighty urges them by 
threatenings and punishments, and allures them by 
promises and rewards ; and if they die impenitent or 
unbelieving, a similar course is pursued with them after 
death, until they are brought to submission. After 
all, faith and obedience depend both here and hereaf- 
ter, on the free will of the creature ; though God, by 
his holy spirit, communicates impulses to all, and, by 
his grace, assists those who strive to obey. Such were 
his views. 

He was a hearty champion of the orthodox church 
against the heretics, particularly against all the Gnos- 
tics ; and he has had the good, or indifferent, fortune, 
that notwithstanding his manifest Universal ism, his 
doctrine was reprehended by none of his cotempora- 
ries, nor his standing ever impeached, even in after 



OF UNIVERSALISM. 



67 



ages, when the works of Origen came to be anathe- 
matized, partly on account of the same sentiment. 

III. Titus Flavius Clemens, usually called Clemens 
Alexandrinus, or Clement of Alexandria, is thought, by 
some, to have been a native of Athens, and by others, 
of Alexandria in Egypt, where he certainly spent the 
most memorable part of his life. The precise dates of 
his birth and death are unknown ; and not the slightest 
account is preserved of his childhood and youth. It 
appears that, after travelling through many countries 
in pursuit of philosophical and religious knowledge, he 
sat down at last under the instructions of the learned 
Pantsenus, a Christian philosopher in Egypt. Here, 
Clemens studied, in conformity with the plan of his 
master, to extract from all the schemes of philosophy 
then in vogue, from the Oriental as well as the Grecian, 
what he deemed their original principles, and to form a 
system for himself out of all these combined ; though 
he gave a decided preference to the tenets of the Sto- 
ics. About the year 195, he was ordained a presbyter 
in the church at Alexandria ; and, near the same time, 
was appointed, in the absence of Pantsenus, to supply 
his place as President of the famous Catechetical School 
in that city. In addition to the cares and labors which 
necessarily devolved upon him from these two offices, 
he composed, it is thought, at about this period, those 
of his works which are yet extant, 14 

14 - These are — 1, His Exhortation to the Gentiles, designed to 
confute the notions of the heathens, and to convince them of the 
truth of Christianity ; 2, his Pcedagogue, written to instruct new 
converts, and to train them up to a holy and truly Christian life ; 
3, his Strornata, a miscellaneous work, containing a more particu- 
lar illustration of the Christian doctrine, together with confutations 
both of the heathen religions, and of the heretical opinions, par- 



68 



THE ANCIENT HISTORY 



Alexandria, next to Rome, the most populous and 
frequented city of that age, was then the great empo- 
rium of literature, philosophy and religion. The splen- 
dor of learning, which had once beamed so full upon 
Athens, seemed returned, though with many fantastic 
colours, to shine upon the native land of letters and 
of science. Some of the celebrity, and many of the 
advantages, which the capital of Egypt now enjoyed, 
arose, undoubtedly, from its immense library, the lar- 
gest the world had ever seen. Seven hundred thou- 
sand manuscripts, deposited in two sections of the city, 
offered to the inquisitive geniuses who assembled from 
every region, all the treasures of ancient wisdom and 
folly. 

Ever since the days of the apostles, the Christians 
of this city had supported a school, founded, it is said, 
by St. Mark ; but it had always been obscure, and 
kept in rather a private manner, till the time of Pan- 
taenus. When he succeeded to its care, he brought it 
into public notice, and soon rendered it the first in 
character and renown, of all the ancient Christian 
seminaries. 

While Clemens presided here, with distinguished 
reputation, he had the honor of instructing some who 

ticularly those of the Gnostics ; 4, his Tract, entitled, What rich 
man shall be saved : 5, his Epitome of the Oriental Doctrine of 
Theodotus ; and 6, his Comments on some of the Epistles of the 
New Testament. These Comments were formerly thought sup- 
posititious ; but they are now generally considered fragments from 
his Hypoty poses, a work which is lost. His exhortation to the 
Gentiles, Paedagogue and Stromata, are supposed to have been 
written between a. d. 193, and 195 ; (Dodwell. Dissert, iii. in 
Irenaeum, and Dissert, de. prim. Pontif. Roman, successione. Mo- 
sheim. Dissertationes ad Hist. Eccl. vol. 1, pp. 34 — 38.) his Hy- 
potyposes perhaps earlier. 



OF UNIVERSALISM. 



69 



arose to eminence in the church, particularly Alexan- 
der, afterwards bishop of Jerusalem, and the celebrated 
Origen. But about a. d. 202, the persecution under 
the emperor Severus, which spread death and terror 
through the church at Alexandria, drove Clemens 
from the city. It is supposed that he embraced this 
opportunity to revisit the eastern countries ; and we 
find him, in the year 205, at Jerusalem, in company 
with his scholar, Alexander. From this place we 
trace him to Antioch ; whence he returned, it is 
thought, to Alexandria, and in connection with Ori- 
gen, resumed for a while, the care of the school. He 
died not far, probably, from a. d. 217. 15 

IV. So imperfect is the account preserved of this 
distinguished father. Of his learning the ancients uni- 
formly speak in terms of admiration. His reading was 
certainly extensive, almost universal : history, poetry, 
mythology and philosophy, seem perfectly familiar to 
him ; and the sacred Scriptures, together with all that 
related to the concerns of the church, were treasured 
in his memory. With his great learning and piety, the 
placid benevolence of his disposition must have con- 
spired to render him esteemed and beloved. If we 
may judge from the character of his writings, his pas- 
sions were naturally moderate, his heart benignant and 
incapable of sourness and severity. Impartiality obli- 
ges us, however, to remark, that like the rest of the 
early fathers, he wanted sober judgement : he was 
credulous, fanciful and incorrect, ignorant of rational 
criticism, and delighted with allegorical interpretations 

i5 - For his life, see Cave's Lives of the Fathers, and Lardner's 
Credibility, &c. Chap. Clement of Alexandria. 



70 



THE ANCIENT HISTORY 



of Scripture. His fondness for the heathen systems of 
philosophy was extravagant ; and it is thought that 
his example had the pernicious influence to recom- 
mend those systems to a more general admiration in 
the church. He was naturally of a poetical genius : 
his style often runs into metre, and his works abound 
with quotations from the ancient poets and philoso- 
phers, as well as from the Scriptures. His method 
of writing is careless, feeble and sometimes very ramb- 
ling. 

V. Passing over several writers of little note, we 
shall now make some observations on the only succeed- 
ing fathers of eminence, before Origen. Cotemporary 
with Clemens, but belonging to the Western or Latin 
church, was the celebrated Tertullian, a 
A. d. 200, presbyter of Carthage in Africa : a man 
to 204. of extensive learning, of strong and vehe- 
ment genius, but severe and morose, su- 
perstitious and fanatical, even when compared with 
those of his own age. He is thought to have been 
the first Christian writer who expressly asserted that 
the torments of the damned will be of Ci equal 16 dura- 
tion ■[ with the happiness of the blest. This circum- 
stance is, indeed, no proof that the same opinion had 
never been entertained before ; but we may safely say 
that, of all the early fathers, there was none with whose 
natural disposition the doctrine of endless misery better 

16, Tertulliani Apologet. cap. 18. At the general resurrection 
and judgement, says he, " God will recompense his worshippers 
" with life eternal; and cast the profane into a fire equally per- 
" petual and unintermitted.'" See Winston on the Eternity of Hell 
Torments, p. 86. N, B. Tertullian 's Apology was written about 
A. D. 200. 



OF UNIVEHSALISM. 



71 



accorded, than with Tertullian's : " You are fond of 
your spectacles, " said he, in allusion to the pagans : 
" there are other spectacles : that day disbelieved, 
" derided, by the nations, that last eternal day of 
" judgement, when all ages shall be swallowed up 
" in one conflagration — what a variety of spectacles 
" shall then appear ! How shall I admire, how laugh, 
" how rejoice, how exult, when I behold so many kings, 
" worshipped as gods in heaven, together with Jove 
" himself, groaning in the lowest abyss of darkness ! 
" so many magistrates who persecuted the name of the 
" Lord, liquefying in fiercer flames than they ever kin- 
" died against Christians : so many sage philosophers 
u blushing in raging fire, with their scholars whom 
" they persuaded to despise God, and to disbelieve 
" the resurrection ; and so many poets shuddering be- 
"fore the tribunal, not of Radamanthus, not of Minos., 
" but of the disbelieved Christ ! Then shall we hear 
u the tragedians more tuneful under their own sufFer- 
" ings ; then shall we see the players far more sprightly 
" amidst the flames ; the charioteer all red-hot in his 
" burning car ; and the wrestlers hurled, not upon the 
" accustomed list, but on a plain of fire." 17 Such is 
the relish with which his fierce spirit dwells on the 
prospect of eternal torments. His gloomy and en- 
thusiastic disposition soon led him to abandon the reg- 
ular churches, as not sufficiently austere and visionary, 
and to join himself to the fanatical sect of Montanists* 
VI, Next to Tertullian is Minucius Fe- 
a. d. 210. lix, another writer of the Western church, 
either a Roman or an African, a lawyer 

17 - Tertull. De Spectaculis, cap. 30. Written about a. d. 203, 
or 204. 



72 



THE ANCIENT HISTORY 



by profession, and a man of considerable learning. 
His Dialogue, the only work he has left us, is a pop- 
ular disputation, elegantly written, in defence of Chris- 
tianity against paganism ; but its beauty is somewhat 
sullied by a mixture of heathen superstitions, and its 
force impaired by frequent declamation instead of ar- 
gument. The author seems to assert the strict eternity 
of hell-torments, and to represent that his was the 
common opinion of Christians, on the subject. In 
allusion to the Grecian fable of the tremendous oath 
of the gods, he says that Jupiter swears by the broil- 
ing banks of the river of fire, and " shudders at the tor- 
" ments which await him and his worshippers : torments 
" that know neither measure nor end. For there the 
" subtile fire burns and repairs, consumes and nourish- 
es ; and as lightenings waste not the bodies they 
" blast, and as Etna, Vesuvius and other volcanoes 
"continue to burn without expending their fuel, so 
" these penal flames of hell are fed, not from the dimi- 
" nution of the damned, but from the bodies they prey 
" upon without consuming," 18 The objector to Chris- 
tianity is, in another passage, represented as saying 
that Christians threaten all but themselves " with tor- 
" ments that never shall have an end." 19 

VII. Clemens, Tertullian, and Minucius Felix, in 
treating of the infernal region and its torments, fre- 
quently adopt the language, and some of the views, of 
the ancient heathen poets. Ever since Justin Martyr, 
it had been a common opinion among the orthodox 

1S - Mirmcii Fel. Dialog, cap. 34. Lardner dates this Dialogue 
at a. d.210; some critics have assigned it to an earlier period, 
and others to a later, even to the year 230. 19, Ditto, cap. 11. 



OF UNIVERSALISM, 



73 



fathers, that at death all souls, both the righteous and 
the wicked, descended to the Hades of the Greeks, or 
Infernum of the Latins ; which was a subterranean 
world consisting of two general divisions, the mansions 
of the just, and the abodes of the guilty. Here the 
separate spirits dwelt, either in joy or suffering, ^ac- 
cording to their different characters and deserts ; un- 
dergoing various courses of discipline and purification, 
as was thought by some ; or, fixed in their respective 
stations, awaiting the decision of the approaching gen- 
eral judgement, as was represented by others. Some 
of the fathers, 20 however, do not seem to have believ- 
ed in the conscious existence of the soul in the inter- 
val between death and the general judgement ; but 
the latter event, they all agreed, was near at hand, 
when the world should be destroyed by fire, Tertullian 
says, in the end of his own age. 

VIIL In concluding this chapter, it may be proper 
to give, as far as practicable, a succinct account of 
the state of Universalism, at the period now under 
consideration. It appears, then, that of the orthodox 
Christians, some believed the eventual salvation of all 
mankind, after a future punishment for the wicked ; 
while others, again, held the doctrine of endless mis- 
ery. This diversity of opinion, however, occasioned 
no divisions, no controversies nor contentions among 
them ; and both sentiments existed together in the 
church without reproach. If we may hazard a con- 
jecture, the generality of the orthodox had not any 
fixed nor definite opinion on the subject. That there 

20 - Viz. Tatian, and perhaps Minucius Felix. 

7 



74 



THE ANCIENT HISTORY 



was a future state of suffering, they all agreed ; but 
whether it were endless, or would terminate in anni- 
hilation,, or whether it would result in a general resto- 
ration, were probably points which few inquired into. 
Such, we may suppose, was the case with the ortho- 
dox churches. 

But we must not here forget the Universalists amono- 
the Gnostic Christians. The Basilidians, Carpocra- 
tians and Valentinians were now thinly scattered over 
all Christendom, and abounded in some places, particu- 
larly in Egypt and the adjacent countries. Though 
they agreed with the Universalists among the ortho- 
dox, in the simple fact of the ultimate salvation of all 
souls, yet their denial of the resurrection and of a fu- 
ture judgement, their views concerning the creation of 
this world, and, in short, the mass of Oriental fables 
which they held in common with the rest of the Gnos- 
tics, deprived them of all intercourse with their breth- 
ren, except as opponents. They were Gnostics, and 
the others were Orthodox : these were the terms of 
distinction. As Universalism, on either side, was not 
a subject of abuse, so it was not an occasion for spe- 
cial favor and friendship ; and the striking difference 
between their views on almost every particular in the 
whole circle of divinity, occasioned a perpetual alter- 
cation, in which the few instances of their mutual 
agreement were overlooked or forgotten. The entire 
body of the orthodox, whether Universalists or not, 
stood in uniform array against the Gnostics of all 
kinds ; and these, in their turn, united their various 
sects, in the struggle against their common adversaries. 



CHAPTER IV. 



[Origen .] 

L Meanwhile, the attention of the 
a, d. 230. Christian world was directed to an ex- 
traordinary genius who had arisen in the 
church. The name of Origen Ad a man tins had awak- 
ened an interest among heathens as well as believers, 
from Egypt and Greece eastward to the remotest 
provinces of the Roman empire. As a doctor in the 
church, and as a philosopher 1 among the learned, he 
stood alone, without either rival or competitor, and en- 
joyed, while living, such a reputation as few, in any 
age, have ever acquired. 

It was about the year 230, that he published, at Al- 
exandria, among other works, his books Of Princi- 
ples, in which he advocated, at considerable length, 
the doctrine of Universal Salvation. This work has 
come down to us only in the Latin translation by 
Rufinus, who altered it in many places, especially in 

*■ He became a philosopher, as many a one does, not by origi- 
nal discoveries, nor by his own investigations into the nature of 
things ; but by a thorough acquaintance with the philosophic 
principles and maxims he had learned from his preceptors, and 
by his surprising, though not always happy readiness in illustrat- 
ing and tracing them, and in accommodating them to every case 
and subject which occurred. In one word, he was a philosopher 
of the schools, not of nature. Mosheim (De Reb. Christian. 
Ante Constant, pp. 611, 612,) has drawn his character, as a phi* 
losopher, in strong, but not unfaithful colours. 



76 



THE ANCIENT HISTORY 



what related to the Trinity, in order to accommodate 
its doctrine to the faith of the fourth century. This 
circumstance throws a shade of uncertainty, in some 
respects, upon the original character of the treatise. 
But that it contained, in its first, as well as in its 
present state, the doctrine in view, is beyond a ques- 
tion ; since ancient writers, 2 who lived while the genu- 
ine Greek copies were yet extant, referred to them, 
and quoted their language, for the purpose of exciting 
the indignation, or calling forth the anathema, of the 
church, against the memory of the illustrious author, 
for having asserted the restoration of every fallen, in- 
telligent creature. 

II. Taking, then, the translation of Rufinus for our 
authority, where we can obtain no better, it appears 
that Origen introduced the doctrine of Universalism 
and that of the Pre-existence of souls, together : 
" Whoever," said he, " would read and acquaint him- 
cc self with these subjects, so difficult to be understood, 
''should possess a mature and well instructed under- 
standing. For if he be not accustomed to such 
" topics, they may appear to him vain and useless ; 
"or if his mind be already established in opposite 
" sentiments, he may hastily suppose, through his own 
" prejudice, that these are heretical and contrary to 
" the faith of the church. Indeed, they are advanced 
a by us with much hesitation, and more in the way of 
" investigating and discussing them, than as pronounc- 
ing them certain and indisputable. 

" The end and consummation of the world will 
take place, when all shall be subjected to punishments 

2 - Viz. Jerome, Justinian, &c. 



OF UNIVERSALISM, 



" proportioned to their several sins ; and how long 
" each one shall suffer, in order to receive his deserts, 
"God only knows. But we suppose that the good- 
ness of God, through Christ, will certainly restore 
" all creatures into one final state ; his very enemies 
" being overcome and subdued. For thus saith the 
" Scripture : The Lord said unto my Lord, sit thou 
u at my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy 
"footstool. (Ps. ex. 1 ,) To the same purport, but 
" more clearly, the apostle Paul says that Christ must 
" reign till he hath put all enemies under his feet. 
" But if there be any doubt what is meant by putting 
" enemies under his feet, let us hear the apostle still 
" further, who says, for all things must be subjected 
" to him. (1 Cor. xv.) What, then, is that subjec- 
tion with which all things must be subdued to 
" Christ ? I think it to be that with which we ourselves 
u desire to be subdued to him ; and with which also 
" the apostles and all the saints who have followed 
" Christ, have been subdued to him. For the very 
66 expression, subjected to Christ, denotes the salvation 
" of those who are subjected : as David says, shall 
" not my soul be subjected to God ? for from him is 
u my salvation. (Ps, lxii. 1.) 

" Such, then, being the final result of things, that 
" all enemies shall be subdued to Christ, death the 
" last enemy be destroyed, and the kingdom be deliv- 
ered up to the Father, by Christ ; let us, with this 
" view before us, now turn and contemplate the be- 
" ginning of things. Now, the beginning always re- 
" sembles the end ; and as there will be one common 

" end or result to all, so we should believe that all 

7 * 



i 



78 



THE ANCIENT HISTORY 



" had one common beginning. In other words, that 
" as the great variety of characters and different orders 
" of beings which now exist, will, through the good- 
ness of God, their subjection to Jesus Christ, and 
" the unity of the Holy Spirit, be finally restored to 
" one and the same state ; so were they all originally 
" created in one common condition, resembling that 
"into which they are eventually to be recalled. All 
" who are, at last, to bow the knee to Jesus Christ, 
" in token of subjection, that is, all who are in heaven, 
" all on earth, and all under the earth, (by which three 
"terms is comprehended the whole intelligent crea- 
"tion,) proceeded, at first, from that one common 
" state ; but as virtue was not immutably fixed in 
" them, as in God, they came to indulge, different 
" passions, and to cherish different principles. They 
"were therefore assigned to the various ranks and 
" conditions they now hold, as the reward or punish- 
" ment of their respective deserts, 553 &c. he. The 
same subject he introduces repeatedly, with various 
illustrations, in the course of this work. 

III. Our author was, at this time, about forty-five 
years old. From his childhood, the greatest expecta- 
tions had been entertained of him ; and in his case, 
mature years did not disappoint the hopes which pre- 
cocious genius had inspired. Origen, af- 
' terwards surnamed Adamantius, was born 

to 203. ifl the cky of Alexandria, A. D. 185, or 
186. Under his father, Leonidas, he was, while very 



3 - Origen. de Principiis, Lib. i. cap. 6. N. B. The reader will 
find our author's notion of Pre-existence more plainly described, 
in Sect. vi. of this chapter. 



OF UNIVERSALISM. 



79 



young, well instructed in all the rudiments of learning, 
and assiduously trained to the study of the sacred 
Scriptures. Of these, it was his daily task to com- 
mit a portion to memory ; but with his characteristic 
passion for speculative inquiry, he refused to be con- 
tent with their obvious meaning, and often perplexed 
his father by an inquisitive desire after a hidden, mys- 
terious sense of the passages which struck his atten- 
tion. This imaginary sense was then the great object 
of investigation, among all who aspired to superior 
attainments in religious knowledge ; and therefore his 
son's inquiries, at so early an age, were hailed by 
Leonidas with secret rapture, though he seemingly 
checked his too manly researches, and admonished 
him to confine his thoughts to subjects more within the 
reach of his infantile powers. 

When a little more advanced in years, Origen was 
sent to the Catechetical School, where he studied di- 
vinity under Clemens Alexandrinus. Here his pur- 
suits were at length interrupted, in the seventeenth 
year of his age, by the persecution under Severus ; 
which began at Alexandria in A. D. 202, and soon 
obliged his master to flee from the city. His father 
was seized and imprisoned for his religion ; and many 
others shared the same fate. But, undismayed by the 
gathering dangers, the eager spirit of the youth con- 
templated them with the strange delight of an enthu- 
siast. He would have thrown himself into the hands 
of the persecutors, in hope of obtaining the prize of 
martyrdom, had he not been prevented by his mother, 
who hid his clothes, and thus, by the sense of shame, 
confined him to his house. Fearing that his father's 



80 



THE ANCIENT HISTORY 



constancy would yield to anxiety for his family's wel- 
fare, he entreated him, by letter, to persevere : " Be 
" steadfast, my father, 5 ' said he, " and take heed that 
"you do not renounce your profession, on our ac- 
" count." Animated by his son's exhortation, he re- 
mained inflexible to the last, and courageously suffered 
martyrdom. 

On the execution of the father, the estate was con- 
fiscated, and the family reduced, at once, to extreme 
poverty ; but a rich lady of Alexandria, either from 
compassion, or respect, took Origen into her own 
house, and freely gave him a support. There lived 
with her, at the same time, a famous heretic, whom 
she had adopted as her son, and who held public lec- 
tures under her patronage. With him though Origen 
was obliged by his situation to converse, yet not even 
gratitude to their common patroness could overcome 
his constant, perhaps bigoted refusal to unite in pray- 
ers ; and he took every method to express his abhor- 
rence of heresy, little thinking that future ages would 
repay this detestation two-fold upon his own head. 
Whether his benefactress began to withdraw her fa- 
vor, or whether he resolved of himself to spare her 
charity, it appears that, in about a year he threw him- 
self upon his own exertions for a livelihood. Having 
been engaged, ever since his father's death, in the 
study of the sciences, he now (A. D. 203,) opened a 
grammar school, from which he had the prospect of 
deriving a support. But his attention was immedi- 
ately called to other subjects : some of the heathens 
applying to him for religious instruction, he gladly ac- 
ceded to their request ; the number of his scholars 



OF UNIVERSALIS^!. 



81 



and converts increased ; and Demetrius, bishop at 
Alexandria, appointed him, though but eighteen years 
old, to the care either of the great Catechetical School, 
or perhaps, at first, to a more private one of the same 
kind. 

IV. Placed in a station so congenial 
a. d. 203, with his taste, all his talents and attain- 
to 216. ments were devoted to the discharge of 
its duties. In order to abstract his at- 
tention from other studies, as well as to secure himself 
a maintenance, he sold that part of his library which 
treated of science and literature, and received from 
the purchaser an obligation to supply him daily with 
four oboli, about five pence, as an income for his sub- 
sistence. From this period, his life was one of the 
most rigid abstinence and laborious study. The day 
he spent partly in fasting and other religious exercises, 
and partly in the duties of his office ; the night he 
passed in the study of the Scriptures, reserving a little 
time for sleep, which he seldom took in bed, and 
generally on the bare ground. A sort of monkish 
austerity had grown to high repute in the church ; 
consequently, Origen's self-denial increased the fame 
of his sanctity, and conspired, with his eloquence and 
extensive learning, to draw from every quarter a great 
number of disciples. They did not dishonor their 
master : Of their constancy in the faith, he soon had 
an opportunity of witnessing a full, though painful, 
proof ; for, in a furious persecution which some of the 
Roman magistrates set on foot at Alexandria, several 
of his scholars undauntedly sealed their professions 
with their lives. He himself was often attacked with 



82 



THE ANCIENT HISTORY 



showers of stones, while going to the place of execu- 
tion to exhort and encourage the martyrs ; and as no 
dangers ever deterred him from this practice, the ex- 
asperated heathens at length beset his house, and 
obliged him to secrete himself, in order to escape their 
rage. About this time, A. D. 206, in his twenty-first 
year, the excessive rigor of his discipline led to an act 
which became an occasion of self-regret, and of much 
reproach, in future life : understanding our Saviour to 
recommend emasculation, 4 he made himself a eunuch, 
not only for the kingdom of heaven's sake, but also 
from prudential considerations ; his instructions being 
sought by both sexes. Demetrius, his bishop, ap- 
plauded it, at first, as an act of the greatest Christian 
heroism ; though he, afterwards, alleged it against 
him as an inexcusable offence. 

Such, at length, was the increase of his school, that 
its cares engrossed too much of his thoughts, leaving 
him no time for reflection and improvement. He 
therefore committed the younger pupils to his friend 
Heraclas, one of his earliest converts ; and employed 
the leisure, which this arrangement afforded, in vari- 
ous studies and occupations. He applied himself to 
the Hebrew, a language then but little known ; next 
he began, it is thought, that astonishing monument of 
application and labor, the Hexapla or Octapla, a 
Polyglott of the Old Testament ; and it was, perhaps, 
not far from this period. 5 that he attended the lectures 
of the ingenious and subtle Ammonius Saccas, whose 

4 - Matt. xix. 12. 5 - So thinks Lardner ; other biographers, 
however, refer his attendance at the School of Ammonius, to an 
earlier period. 



OF UNIVERSALISM. 



83 



darling study it was to harmonize all the different sys- 
tems of philosophy and religion, heathen as well as 
Christian, by combining their leading principles, and 
by rejecting from each, or turning into allegory, what- 
ever was absolutely discordant with his general design. 
Under him, Origen became master of the Platonic, 
Pythagorean, Stoic, and Oriental notions ; which, to- 
gether with his previous acquirements, rendered him 
so expert in the whole circle of ancient literature and 
science, that many of the learned, even among the 
heretics and the heathens, came to make trial of his 
skill, or to be instructed by him. Of these, there was 
one who preserved his own name from oblivion, by 
the zeal with which he assisted Origen, and the suc- 
cess with which he drew forth his talents. The name 
of Ambrosius will frequently occur in this biography. 
He was a wealthy nobleman of Alexandria, who had 
followed the Valentinian and Marcionite heresies ; but 
on being convinced by attending the school of Origen, 
(A. D. 212,) he joined the orthodox church, and be- 
came the great patron and benefactor of his master. 
Not far from the year 23.3, Origen's curiosity led him 
to visit Rome. Here, however, he tarried but a short 
time, and then returned to Alexandria. Soon after- 
wards, he went into Arabia, on the request of some 
leader of the wandering tribes, who had earnestly en- 
treated him to come and instruct him in the Christian 
religion. Scarcely was he re-established in Alexan- 
dria, when the emperor Caracalla (A. D. 216,) threw 
the whole city into consternation by an indiscriminate 
massacre, in revenge for the jeers and scoffs he had 
received from some of the inhabitants ; and to escape 



84 



THE ANCIENT HISTORY 



the terrible confusion, Origen retired to Cesarea in 
Palestine. Here, the bishops of the province per- 
suaded him, though never ordained, to expound the 
Scriptures publicly to the people, 

V. This appointment, so honorable to 
a. d. 216, Origen, was but the forerunner of an in- 
to 230. veterate, and at length fatal, persecu- 
tion from his own bishop at Alexandria. 
Demetrius instantly addressed a letter of complaint to 
his brethren in Palestine, asserting that it was a thing 
unheard of, that a layman should preach in the pres- 
ence of bishops ; but Alexander bishop of Jerusalem, 
and Theoctistus, bishop of Cesarea, answered him, by 
showing that the practice had been sanctioned in the 
church by several precedents. Demetrius, however, 
remained dissatisfied, and sent some deacons to Ori- 
gen, with an order for his immediate return to Alex- 
andria. He came accordingly and resumed the care 
of his school. This he seems to have prosecuted, in 
quiet, for five or six years ; when an event occurred, 
which serves to show, at once, the superiority of his 
reputation, and the influence it had in recommending 
Christianity to the favorable notice of the great. The 
princess Mammaea, mother of Alexander, the reigning 
emperor, sent for Origen to visit her at Antioch, 
and furnished a military guard to escort him thither. 
Having given her a general illustration of the Chris- 
tian doctrine, he returned, with her permission to his 
charge at Alexandria. 

At the earnest solicitation of Ambrosius, he now 
began his Commentaries. He was furnished, by this 
devoted patron, with every convenience for the pur- 



OF UNIVERSAL! SM. 



85 



pose : seven notaries stood ready to record as he dic- 
tated ; and a number of transcribers received their 
hasty notes, and wrote them out, in a plain and ele- 
gant hand. In this manner he was engaged, till A. 
D. 228 ; when he was sent into Achaia, on some 
ecclesiastical affairs, with letters of recommendation 
from Demetrius. Passing through Palestine on his 
journey, he was ordained Presbyter, by the bishops 
of that province. Demetrius warmly resented this 
procedure of foreign prelates, without his leave \ and 
wrote letters against Origen to the churches, declaring 
him disqualified for the priesthood, by the act perform- 
ed in his youth, and alleging that it was unlawful to 
ordain the Principal of the Alexandrian School, with- 
out his knowledge and concurrence. In the midst of 
this ferment, Origen, having accomplished his business 
in Greece, returned to Alexandria, finished the first 
five books of his Commentaries on St. John, those on 
the Lamentations, on some of the Psalms, and on 
part of Genesis, and published them, A. D, 230, to- 
gether with his work entitled Stromata, and his book 
Of Principles. 

VI. These were, perhaps, his first publications. 
From the last mentioned work, we have already seen 
that, in connexion with Universalism, he held the 
doctrine of Pre-existence. His opinion was, that in 
the past ages of eternity, God created, at once, all the 
rational minds which have ever existed, whether of 
angels or men, gave them the same nature and the 
same powers, and placed them all in one celestial 
state. Accordingly, they were all, at first, exactly 
alike in rank, capacity and character. But as they all 
8 



86 



the Ancient history 



had perfect freedom of will, they did not long continue 
in this state of equality ; for while some improved them- 
selves more or less, others degenerated proportionally, 
till an infinite diversity of character and condition be- 
gan to take place among them. In consequence of 
this, the Almighty at length formed the material Uni- 
verse out of pre-existent matter, and appointed those 
spirits to different ranks and conditions in it, according 
to their respective deserts ; elevating some to the an- 
gelic order, consigning others to the infernal abodes as 
demons, and sending the intermediate class, as oc- 
casion might require, into human bodies. Origan 
supposed, also, that the Sun, Moon and Stars were 
animated by certain spirits who had attained to great 
moral splendor, dignity and power, and who might, 
with justice, claim those bright and glorious spheres as 
their own appropriate bodies. 

As all these intelligent beings, whatever their char- 
acter and station, still retain their original freedom of 
will, and are therefore capable of returning from their 
former transgressions, of forfeiting their honors, or of 
rising to still higher degrees of excellence, their pres- 
ent conditions are not only the allotments of retribu- 
tive justice for the past, but are also states of discipline 
adapted to reclaim the degenerate, and to encourage 
the virtuous. To this end, indeed, are all the ap- 
pointments of providence, and all the administrations 
of the divine government, constantly directed ; and 
justice itself steadily pursues the same gracious de- 
sign, 6 in all its severe, but salutary, inflictions. Such 

6 - Many of the Gnostics held that Justice is opposed to Good- 
ness, and that it is therefore an attribute of the stern Creator of 



OF UNIVERSALIS!*!. 



87 



are the views we may gather from Origen's books 
Of Principles, and his other works published at this 
period. 

this world, and not of the benevolent Deity. Against these Ori- 
gen says, "Let them consider this : if Goodness is a virtue, as 
" doubtless they will confess it to be, what will they say of Jus- 
"tice ? They will not be so stupid, I think, as to deny that Jus- 
"tice is a virtue. If Goodness then is a virtue, and Justice also 
u a virtue, there is no question but that Justice is Goodness. But 
"if they still assert that Justice is not Goodness, it remains that it 
" is either evil or indifferent. Now, I suppose it would be folly 
" to reply to any who should say that Justice is evil ; for how can 
" that be evil, which renders blessing to the good, as they them 
" selves confess that Justice does ? But if they assert that it is 
"indifferent, [neither good nor evil,] then it follows that together 
" with Justice, every other virtue, as sobriety, prudence, &c. must 
" be considered indifferent. And how then should we under 
" stand St. Paul, who says, If there he any virtue, any praise, 
" think on these things which ye have both learned and received, 
"and, heard, aad seen in me. (Phil. iv. 8, 9.) Let them, there- 
fore, learn by searching the Scriptures, what are the several 
" virtues. And when they allege that the God who rewards 
" every one according to his deserts, renders evil to the evil, 
" let them not conceal the principle : that as the sick must be 
" cured by harsh medicines, so God administers, for the purpose 
" of emendation, what for the present appears to produce pain. 
" They do not consider what is written concerning the hope of 
" those who perished in the deluge ; of which hope, St. Peter 
" says, in his first Epistle, that Christ was put to death in the flesh, 
" but quickened by the Spirit ; by ivhich also he went and preached 
" to the spirits in prison, which sometime toere disobedient, when 
" once the long-suffering of God, waited in the days of No alt , tohile 
" the ark was a preparing, §>c. (1 Pet. in. 18, 19, 20.) Let them 
"also consider the instances of Sodom and Gomorrah : as they 
"believe the prophecies are the word of that God, the Creator, 
"who is said to have rained fire and brimstone upon them ; what, 
"we ask, does the prophet Ezekiel say of them? Sodom, says 
" he, shall be restored to its former state. (Ezek. xvi. 55.) Now, 
" he who afflicts those who deserve punishment, does he not afflict 
" them for their good ? He says also to Chaldea, thou hast coals 
" of fire ; sit upon them ; they will be a help to thee. (Isa. xlvii. 
" 14, 15,) Let them also hear what is said, in the Psalms, of 
" those who fell in the desert : when he had slain them, then they 
"sought him. (Ps. lxxviii. 34.) It is not said, that when some 
"were slain, the rest sought God ; but that such was the end of 
" those who were slain, that when dead, they sought him." De 
Princip. Lib. ii. cap. 5, § 3. 

N. B. Whenever the early fathers quote from the Old Testa- 
ment, they make use of the Septuagint version, which, in many 
passages, differs considerably from our translation. 



88 



THE ANCIENT HISTORY 



The language in which he defines, or involves, his 
notions of the Trinity, is not always such as would 
now be judged orthodox, though it w r as probably re- 
garded as sufficiently so, in his own age. Of the fall 
of man, he has no other view than that it consisted in 
the descent of the celestial soul to the prison of an 
earthly body, in consequence of its transgressions ; it 
is evident that he made no distinction between the 
natural state of Adam, and that in which all mankind 
have since been born. He holds that none can ever 
be happy, or miserable, but by the right or wrong use 
of their own free-wills ; and that even what are now 
called the gracious influences of the Holy Spirit, are 
imparted to creatures only in proportion to their pre- 
vious deserts. After death, the souls of the faithful 
may perhaps remain awhile upon earth, under a 
course of purification ; then be taken into the air, 
and at length elevated, by degrees, to the highest 
heaven. In the resurrection, mankind will come forth 
with bodies, not of gross earthly matter, but of an 
aerial substance ; and then the whole human race, 
both good and bad, will be subjected to a fiery ordeal 
in the general conflagration, with different degrees of 
pain, according to their moral purity or corruption. 
The righteous will quickly pass through this trial into 
the enjoyments of heaven ; but the wicked will then 
be condemned to the punishments of hell, which con- 
sist both of inflicted pain, and of the remorse of con- 
science. These sufferings, though he calls them ever- 
lasting? Origen held, would be apportioned, in length 
and severity, to every one's wickedness and hardness 
7 - Proem. Lib. De Principiis. and Lib. ii. cap. 10, § 1 and 3. 



OF UNIVERSALIS]*!. 



89 



of heart : for some, they would be shorter and more 
moderate ; but for others, especially for the devil, 
they would necessarily be rendered intense, and pro- 
tracted to an immense duration, in order to overcome 
the obstinacy and corruption of the guilty sufferers. 
At last, however, the whole intelligent creation should 
be purified, and God become all in all. 8 

VII. But nothing is more remarkable, in these 
early publications, than the rule they set forth for 
the interpretation of Scripture. We have already 
seen that the allegorical method had long been in 
vogue ; and that it had, now, become almost univer- 
sal. Strange as it may seem, Origen pursued this 
farther than even his predecessors, and reduced it to 
a sort of system, unequalled in absurdity, except by 
that of the famous Baron Swedenborg. To the sa- 
cred writings in general, he attributed three distinct 
senses: 1, the literal, which in no case is of great 
importance, and sometimes entirely useless ; 2, the 
moral, superior in value to the former, teaching us to 
consider every historical account as an allegorical rep- 
resentation of certain virtues or vices in our own 
hearts ; as, when the Scripture relates that Joseph 

8 - Huet, Du Pin, and others, represent Origen to have held a 
perpetual change of character and condition among all classes of 
rational creatures \ so that not only the damned will, in time, as- 
cend to happiness, but also the blest may, at length, fall into sin 
and misery ; and joy as well as suffering come to an end. It is 
true, he holds the perpetual freedom of the will, and seems to 
to admit, in consequence, the probability of a fall hereafter, from 
heaven, at least in individual cases. But if I do not greatly mis- 
take, he contemplates a distant period, beyond all revolutions, 
when every intelligent nature will have become so thoroughly 
caught by experience and observation, and so intimately united to 
God, as to be in no more danger of defection. See De Princip. 
Lib, ii. cap. 3, § 5, and Lib. iii. cap. 6, § 6. 

8* 



90 



THE ANCIENT HISTORY 



being dead, the children of Israel increased in num- 
ber, we learn, 9 by the moral sense, that if we receive 
the death of Christ, our spiritual Joseph, into our sin- 
ful members, the children of Israel, that is, the graces 
of the spirit, will be multiplied within us ; 3, the mys- 
tical or spiritual sense, the most excellent of all : by 
which the more enlightened can trace in all the Scrip- 
ture narratives, of whatever sort, a latent history of 
Christ's church ; and by which also they can discov- 
er, in every account of earthly things, some represen- 
tations of that celestial, invisible world, of which the 
present is but a faint and imperfect image. There, 
souls are the inhabitants, and angels the rulers ; and 
there the ideal regions and the order of events cor- 
respond, in some degree, to those on earth. Ridicu- 
lous as was this system of interpretation, it met the 
taste of his times ; though, even then, there were 
some who rejected it, at least in part, and raised their 
feeble voice against its extravagance. But they them- 
selves often ran into other notions nearly as chimeri- 
cal. 

VIII. While Origen was engaged in 
a. d. 230, preparing and publishing the works now 
to 245. mentioned, the storm which his bishop 
had raised against him, continued, in- 
creasing in violence. Wearied out. at length, with 
contention, he took a private and final leave of his 
native country, (A. D. 231.) and retired to Palestine, 
where he was cordially received by his old friends, 

9 - Horail. i. in Exod. § 4. I have taken this illustration from 
one of Origen's later works; but in the books Of Principles, the 
nature and use of the moral sense are abundantly explained. 



OF UN1VERSALISM. 



91 



Alexander of Jerusalem, and Theoctistus of Cesarea. 
Immediately on his retreat, Demetrius assembled all 
the Egyptian bishops, and such of the presbyters as 
he thought in his own favor, with the hope of pro- 
curing the condemnation of his victim. In this, how- 
ever, he was disappointed : the council decreed only 
that Origen should be deprived of his office in the 
Catechetical School, and of the privilege of teaching 
it Alexandria ; but that he should still enjoy his char- 
acter of presbyter. This not satisfying his wrath, 
Dene trius called another council (probably in A. D. 
232,) composed of such bishops only as he saw fit to 
select from his own province. With these he suc- 
ceeded- they ordained that Origen should be deposed 
from his sacerdotal dignity, and excommunicated from 
the church. When this sentence was thus formally 
passed upon him, he could not, according to the ec- 
clesiastical Constitution and Canons, be received in 
any church, nor by any bishop, under the Catholic ju- 
risdiction ; nevertheless the bishops of Arabia, Pales- 
tine, Phoenicia, and Achaia, his personal acquaintan- 
ces, hazarded the experiment of supporting him, at 
the expense of non-conformity to the established regu- 
lations. But in the West, and particularly at Rome, 
the sentence of excommunication was readily con- 
firmed. 

That it was not for error in doctrine that Origen 
was condemned, is expressly asserted by some of the 
ancients, 10 and evident from the silence of all the rest. 
It is not incredible, indeed, that his adversary adopted 

10 * Jerome. Apud Ruf. Invect. ii. inter Hieronymi Opera. 



92 



THE ANCIENT HISTORY 



the usual expedient in ecclesiastical persecution, and 
in order to increase the odium, represented some 
opinions he had advanced, as worthy of reproof. 
But if this were the case, it cannot have formed a 
prominent ground in the prosecution, since there is no 
trace of it left, in all antiquity. What were the prin- 
cipal charges alleged against him, we can only con- 
jecture i 11 The consciences of an angry prelate, and 
his select minions, could not be very scrupulous in 
the choice of matter for condemnation ; and it *s 
thought to have related only to some informality in 
his ordination, and to some disregard of the customary 
claims of his bishop. Demetrius, however, did not 
long enjoy his revenge, as he died, probably, this 
year. After his decease, the rage of opposition ap- 
peared to subside ; but still Origen was considered, 
by the Egyptian Christians, as an excommunicated 
person ; and such was their respect for the ecclesias- 
tical canons, that the sentence of Demetrius was 
never revoked by his successors, Heraclas and Dio- 
nysius, though they had been disciples of Origen, 

11 • As for the story we find in Epiphanius (Haeres. lxiv. 2,) 
that before Origen left Alexandria, he consented to hold incense 
over the altar in honor of an idol, rather than be unnaturally de- 
filed by an Ethiopian, it is generally thought by the moderns to 
have been one of Epiphanius's fables, or perhaps an interpolation 
in his works. Nicephorus appears to have taken the same ac- 
count, with some alteration, from Epiphanius. Some later wri- 
ter, in order to continue the story, has forged a piece entitled The 
Lamentation of Origen, or Origen s Repentance, in which he is 
made to bewail, in the most extravagant manner, his having sacri- 
ficed to idols. See Huet. Origenian Lib. i. cap. 4, § 4, and Ap- 
pend, ad Lib. iii. § 8, Cave's Lives of the Fathers, Art. Origen, 
&c. Du Pin's Bibliotheca Patrum, Art. Origen, Note n; and 
Mosheim. De Reb. Christian. Ante Constant, p. 676. The La- 
mentation of Origen may be found in Dr. Hanmer's English 
translation of Eusebius, Socrates and Evagrius. 



OF UNIVERSALISM. 



93 



(the former, his assistant,) and though they both still 
retained the greatest veneration and the warmest af- 
fection for him. 

At Cesarea he was again appointed to expound the 
Scriptures to the people ; and the bishops of Pales- 
tine, themselves, often sat under his instructions, as 
though he were their master. This city, at that time 
the largest in the Holy Land, and the capital of one 
of its divisions, might be classed, perhaps, with the 
Roman cities of the third rank in Asia, inferior not 
only to Antioch, the queen of the East, but also to 
Ephesus and Smyrna, It rose on a gentle acclivity 
from the shore of the Mediterranean, about mid-way 
between Joppa and Ptolemais ; and its white marble 
buildings, its magnificent amphitheatre, and, higher 
than all the rest, its splendid heathen temple, met the 
view of the distant voyager as he coasted along, or 
approached the harbor. 12 Here, Origen opened a 
school, somewhat on the plan of that at Alexandria, 
for the study of literature and religion ; and his fame 
soon drew scholars both from the adjacent province, 
and from remoter regions. From Cappadocia, he re- 
ceived Firmilian, who afterwards returned to his na- 
tive country and became the most eminent bishop 
there. Still farther to the north, from Pontus on the 
shore of the Euxine, came Gregory Thaumaturgus 
and his brother Athenodorus. 

Meanwhile, Origen proceeded with his Commenta- 
ries on St. John's Gospel, and began those on Isaiah 

12 - Josephus Antiq. Book xv. chap. 9, § 6, and Reland. Palaest. 
Itlustrat. Lib. iii. Art. Cesarea. The city was 62 miles N. W. of 
Jerusalem. 



94 



THE ANCIENT HISTORY 



and Ezekiel. Thus constantly engaged either in his 
school, or in preaching, or writing, he seems to have 
passed about four years, in quiet, till A. D. 235 ; 
when the barbarous Maxim in, on coming to the 
throne, instituted a persecution against the more dis- 
tinguished of the Christians, out of a fearful suspicion 
that they cherished, with too grateful a regard, the 
memory of his murdered predecessor. Among oth- 
ers, Protoctetus, a presbyter of Cesarea, and the gen- 
erous Ambrosius, were thrown into prison, and tortur- 
ed with various cruelties, To them Origen wrote and 
dedicated his book On Martyrdom ; but concealed 
himself, the meanwhile, in a private family in the city, 
and some time afterwards, retired across the seas to 
Athens. Here he finished his Commentaries on Eze- 
kiel, and went forward with those upon Canticles. 
From this place, it is thought he made a visit to his 
friend Ambrosius ; who, on being released from his 
sufferings in Palestine, had gone, with his family, to 
the city of Nicomedia, on the north-east of the Pro- 
pontis. Returning at length to Cesarea, about A. D. 
240, his next journey., it seems, was to the city of 
the same name in Cappadocia, the metropolis of that 
province, whither his former scholar, Firmilian, now 
elevated to the bishopric there, had importuned him to 
come, in order to instruct his churches in the knowl- 
edge of the Scriptures. About A. D. 243, he went 
into Arabia, on the request of a council convened 
against Beryllus of Bostra, a bishop of that country, 
who differed somewhat from the popular faith con- 
cerning the trinity. With him Origen's conversation 
effected, what the council had been unable to attain, 



OF UNIVERSALISM. 



95 



the renunciation of his supposed error ; and with such 
grace was this accomplished, that Beryllus became 
the lasting and ardent friend of his victorious oppo- 
nent. It was a little after this, perhaps the next year, 
that he wrote, at the solicitation of Ambrosius, his 
books Against Celsus, a heathen philosopher of the 
second century, who had hoped, by a labored treatise, 
to overthrow Christianity. To this learned and witty 
enemy of the Gospel, Origen's work is generally es- 
teemed a candid and thorough answer ; though some 
of the more judicious and impartial have detected in 
it a few instances of the prevailing disingenuousness 
and sophistry of the times. He was soon called 
again into Arabia, by another council of bishops, 
in order to reclaim some Christians there, who held 
that the soul dies with the body, and with it awakes 
to consciousness at the resurrection. On his arrival, 
he contended so successfully against the obnoxious 
sentiment, that its advocates changed their opinion, 
and returned to the cordial fellowship of the church. 
This was under the reign of Philip, to whom, per- 
haps, more properly belongs the distinction, commonly 
allowed to Constantine, of having been, though se- 
cretly, the first Christian emperor. Be that as it may, 
Origen appears to have been honored with his cor- 
respondence, and with that of the empress. 

V IX. Notwithstanding the multiplicity 

oi his pursuits, the variety 01 his situa- 
t0 ~ tions, and the changes of his fortune, he 
seems never to have neglected the Hexapla or Octa- 
pla, ld that great work, which alone would have im- 

13 - It was called Tetrapla, Hexapla, or Octajrta, according as 
the copy contained three, six, or all of the columns. 



96 



THE ANCIENT HISTORY 



mortalized his name. At what time it was completed, 
is unknown ; probably, however, not far from this 
period. In its entire state, it consisted of the Hebrew 
text of the Old Testament, placed in the first column ; 
the same, but written in Greek letters, in the second ; 
the translation of Aquila, in the third : that of Sym- 
machus, in the fourth ; the Septuagint in the fifth : 
the version of Theodotion in the sixth ; two other 
versions of the prophets, in the seventh and eighth ; 
together with a translation only of the Psalms. 
Wherever he found the Septuagint to depart from 
the Hebrew text, he affixed different marks to denote 
what was omitted, or what was added ; and, by simi- 
lar means, he distinguished the various readings of 
the Original itself, according to the countenance each 
one received from the several translations. This is 
supposed to have been the first attempt at a Polyglott, 
or critical compilation of the Scriptures in different 
lanD-uacres. In the s;reat uncial letters of ancient man- 
uscripts, it must have swelled to an enormous bulk, 
amounting, as Montfaucon thinks, to at least fifty 
volumes of a very large size. Mosheim says, that 
" though almost entirely destroyed by the waste of 
;i time, it will even in its fragments, remain an eter- 
" nal monument of the incredible application with 
" which that great man labored to remove those ob- 
(C stacles which retarded the progress of the gospel. " 

But neither the services he had rendered the 
church, nor the veneration with which his name was 
generallv regarded throughout the East, could stifle a 
strong disaffection, in many Christians of that day, 
towards some of his extravagances. We may per- 



OF UNIVERSALISM. 



97 



ceive, in his later writings, allusions to the complaints 
of such as reprehended his perpetual use of heathen 
philosophy, and of those who animadverted on his 
allegorical system of interpreting the Scriptures, And 
we occasionally discover that he felt and lamented, 
what is the common misfortune of greatness, that the 
unbounded praises lavished upon him by his personal 
admirers, had awakened, in others, a spirit of envy 
and abuse. An invidious hostility, once excited, 
could never be at a loss, amidst the prodigious num- 
ber of his writings, to select some wild notions, many 
unguarded expressions, which would seemingly justify 
the clamors of passion, and the cold discountenance of 
more prudent malignity ; and it is said that Origen, at 
length, judged it expedient to write a letter to Fabian, 
the bishop of Rome, in vindication of his impeached 
orthodoxy. 14 

]4 - Eusebius (Hist. Eccl. Lib. vi. cap. 36,) barely mentions that 
Origen wrote a letter to Fabian concerning his own orthodoxy ; 
but Jerome, who is not the best authority, says, (Hieron. Epist. 
xli. vel. 65, ad Pammach. p. 347,) that Origen therein lamented 
that he had written those things for which he had been censured, 
and that he also cast upon Ambrosius the blame of having circu- 
lated those writings which contained them, and which he himself 
had intended only for private use. How much of this improbable 
account is true, cannot be determined, as the letter is lost. It is 
natural, here, to ask, Was Universalis™ one of those tenets which 
then gave offence ? But to this interesting question no certain an- 
swer is to be found. Circumstances, however, would lead us to 
hazard an answer in the negative : 1, Origen continued to advo- 
cate that doctrine even in his latest publications, (See note s, to 
§ xi. of this chapter,) without an intimation that it was censured ; 
2, in all the succeeding controversies concerning his orthodoxy, 
which began to rage in about forty years after his death, we never 
find that doctrine involved, till after the contention had lasted a 
century ; (See chapters vi. and vii.) and it is not likely that a doc- 
trine of so much consequence, had it once been pointed out as a 
subject of complaint, would have been forgotten, as such, botli by 
his adversaries and his apologists. 

It does, indeed, appear, from an expression in his Letter to his 

9 



98 



THE ANCIENT HISTORY 



Though now above sixty years of age, (A. D. 246,) 
he appears to have subjected himself to as great exer- 
tions as at any former period ; proceeding in the com- 
position of some large works, and at the same time 
delivering daily lectures to the people of Cesarea. 
These, though extemporaneous and unprepared, were 
nevertheless so highly esteemed, that, with his con- 
sent, transcribers were now employed, for the first 
time, to take them down as they were delivered, and 
then to publish them under the title of Homilies. At 
length his Commentaries on St. Matthew's Gospel, 
those on the twelve minor Prophets, and on the Epis- 
tle to the Romans, were finished in succession, having 
employed him till near the year 250. At this date 
the terrible persecution under the emperor Decius 
broke out ; and Origen was seized at the city of 

Alexandrian friends, as explained by Jerome, that a Valentinian 
heretic endeavored to stigmatize him with holding the salvation 
of the devil. But we have only a part of the Letter, and that 
only in the translations of Rufinus (De Adulterat. Librorum Ori- 
gen.) and of Jerome (Apolog. adversus Rutin. Lib. ii. pp. 413, 415 :) 
both of whom are well known to have taken considerable freedom 
with Origen's language. There is some difference in their ver- 
sions of this passage ; but much more in the light in which they 
leave the subject. According to the former, Origen incidentally 
observes that his enemies accused him of asserting the salvation 
of the devil, " which," adds he, " no one can assert, unless trans- 
" ported, or manifestly insane. " According to Jerome, who cor- 
rects the misrepresentations of Rufinus, Origen barely alludes to 
the cavils of a certain Valentinian concerning the salvation of 
the devil ; "which," continues he, "none could avow, unless 
insane. " What is unaccountable in these two translations, is, 
not their difference, but the point in which they agree, viz. that 
they both make Origen pronounce the salvation of the devil a 
tenet which none could assert, unless insane ; when he himself 
had asserted and illustrated it (De Principiis Lib. i. cap. 6, and 
Lib. iii. cap. 6, § 5,) and continued to do so in his latest works 
(Tom. xiii. in Matt, and Homil. in Josh.) As neither Rufinus nor 
Jerome had this sentence particularly in view, we may suspect 
that they have given it a false construction. 



OF UNIVERSALIS}!, 



99 



Tyre, cast into prison, and loaded with irons. Here 
he suffered the most excruciating torments : his feet 
were kept in the stocks, distended to the utmost ex- 
tremity, for several days ; he was then threatened 
with being burned alive ; and when it appeared that 
threats could not shake his constancy, he was racked 
with several kinds of torture, At length his execu- 
tioners, tired with the infliction of unavailing cruelties, 
or more probably prevented by the death of Decius, 
(A. D. 251,) suffered him to escape alive. After 
this, he held several conferences, and wrote many 
letters, in all which he evinced a soul worthy of the 
life he had led. He died, at Tyre, about A. D. 253, 
in the sixty-sixth or sixty-seventh year of his age ; 
and a splendid tomb, erected in that city, declared to 
future times the grateful veneration which the church 
paid to his memory, 15 

X. Nothing but a frame like iron could so long 
have held out under his rigid privations and unremit- 
ted labors. Employed, for the most of his life, in the 
numerous duties of a public and daily instructer, he 
still found time to perfect himself in the whole circle 
of human knowledge, such as it then was, and after 
all, to become one of the most voluminous 16 writers 

15 - For the Life of Origen, I have had recourse to the moderns, 
instead of attempting to collect, arrange and illustrate the original 
accounts scattered through Eusebius and other ancient writers. 
See Huetii Origeniana, inter Origenis Opera ; Cave's Lives of the 
Fathers ; Du Pin's Bibliotheca Patrum ; Lardner's Credibility of 
the Gospel History ; and Delarue's Notes and prefatory Remarks, 
(Edit. Origenis Operum Dejarue,) and Mosheim's Criticisms (De 
Rebus Christian. Ante Constantinum.) These authors, though 
they agree in every thing important, differ somewhat in dates 
and in the order of events. 

16 . He published, some say, six thousand volumes, many of 
which, however, must, of course, have been very small. The 



100 



THE ANCIENT HISTORY 



that ever lived. The wonder, with which the an- 
cients regarded his various achievements, was but 
natural ; and it was with some propriety that they 
surnamed him Adamantius, to intimate the invincible 
strength of a constitution that sustained toils which 
would have worn out several ordinary lives. With 
regard to his native talents, there is a striking, though 
not singular contrariety in his character : Endued with 
a perception the very quickest, and with a memory 
the most retentive, but deficient in the more substan- 
tial gifts of cool judgement and good sense, he ap- 
pears, by turns, the brightest of geniuses, and the 
wildest of visionaries. As a moral and religious man, 
however, his character is consistent, and his reputation 
without a blot. Both his friends and his enemies 
aoree in attributino; to him the most illustrious virtue, 
ardent piety, and the purest zeal. Austere, but not 
morose, he never spared himself, and amidst all the 
abuse he suffered, seldom showed the least severity 
against others. Naturally of a meek and unassuming 
temper, he endured, unmoved, the admiration of the 
world, with no apparent vanity, and without that more 
treacherous symptom of pride, the affectation of hu- 
mility. As a writer, his style is simple, clear and 
fluent ; but careless, redundant, and often incorrect. 
To conclude his character in the words of one of the 
most learned and discriminating of ecclesiastical histo- 
rians, he was " a man of vast and uncommon abilities, 
" and the greatest luminary of the Christian world, 

remains of this astonishing mass, are collected in four volumes 
folio, besides two additional volumes containing the fragments of 
the Hexapla. 



OF UNIVERSALISM. 



101 



" which this age exhibited to view. Had the justness 
" of his judgement been equal to the immensity of his 
" genius, the fervor of his piety, his indefatigable pa- 
" tience, his extensive erudition, and his other eminent 
" and superior talents, all encomiums must have fallen 
" short of his merit. Yet such as he was, his virtues 
" and his labors deserve the admiration of all ages ; 
" and his name will be transmitted with honor through 
u the annals of time, as long as learning and genius 
" shall be esteemed among men. " 17 

XL We have as yet quoted only one of his testi- 
monies in favor of Universalism. It was, with him, a 
favorite topic ; and he introduced it, not only in his 
earliest, but also in his latest publications, in his popu- 
lar discourses, or Homilies, as well as in his more la- 
bored and systematic treatises. 18 Passing over his 

17> Mosheim, Eccl. Hist. Cent. iii. Part 2, chap. ii. § 7. 

18 - I do not attempt to point out all the passages in which Ori- 
gen introduces this doctrine ; but however imperfect, the follow- 
ing table of references to Delarue's splendid edition of his works, 
may afford some notion of its frequent occurrence, and assist the 
inquiries of such as wish to consult the original. The dates here 
affixed to the respective works, are those assigned by the learned 
editor. 

De Principiis, a. d. 230. Lib. i. cap. vi. and vii. § 5. Lib. ii. cap. i. 
2. cap. iii. 3, 5, 7. cap. v. 3. cap. x. 5, 6. Lib. iii. cap. v. 5, 6, 7, 8. 
cap. vi. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9. Lib. iv. cap. 21 and 22 and 25.— 
Homilia in Luc am. Perhaps about a. d. 230. Homil. xiv. — Com- 
mentariorum in Johannem Tom. i. cap. 14. About a. d. 230, — De 
Oratione. After a. d. 231. Cap. v. p. 205. cap. xxvii. pp. 250,251. 
cap. xxix. pp. 261 to 264. — Comment, in Johan. Tom. xix. cap. 3. 
About a. d. 234. — Tract xxxiv. in Johannem. — Commentarii in 
Matthaium. About a. d. 245. Tom. x. and xiii. and xv. — Tract 
xxiii. and xxx. and xxxiii. in Matthaium. — Commentarii in Epist. 
ad Romanos. About a. d. 246. Lib. v. cap. 7. Lib. viii. cap. 12. — 
Homiliai. Between a. d. 245 and 250. Homil. in Liviticum vii. 
cap. 2, p. 222. Homil. viii. cap. 4, p. 230. Homil. in Numeros vi. 
cap. 4. Homil. xi. cap. 5. Homil. xxvi. cap. 4, &c. Homil. in i. 
Lib. Regum ii. cap. 28, pp. 494 to 498. Homil. in Lib. Jcsu Nave 
viii. cap. 4. p. 416. Homil. in Jeremiam ii. cap. 2 and 3. pp. 138, 
139. Homil. xvi. cap. 5 and 6, pp. 232, 233. Homil. in Ezekielem 

9* 



102 



THE ANCIENT HISTORY 



books Of Principles, and many other works, in which 
this doctrine abounds, we shall transcribe only a pas- 
sage or two from one of his last productions, which is 
still extant in* the original Greek. 

Celsus, the heathen philosopher, had accused the 
Christians of representing God as a merciless tormen- 
tor, descending, at the end of the world, armed with 
fire. To this charge Origen replied, that " since the 
" scoffing Celsus thus compels us to go into subjects of 
" a profounder nature, we shall first say a few things, 
" enough to give the readers a notion of our defence 
" on this point, and then proceed to the rest. The 
" sacred Scripture does, indeed, call our God a con- 
" suming fire, (Deut. iv. 24,) and says that rivers 
" of fire go before his face, (Dan. vii. 10,) and that he 
" shall come as a refiner's fire and as fuller's soap, 
" and purify the people. (Mai. iii. 2.) As, therefore, 
" God is a consuming fire, what is it that is to be con- 
" sumed by him ? We say it is wickedness, and 
" whatever proceeds from it, such as is figuratively 
" called wood, hay and stubble. These are what God, 
" in the character of fire, consumes. And as it is evi- 
u dently the wicked works of man which are denoted by 
ic the terms wood, hay, and stubble, it is, consequently, 
" easy to understand what is the nature of that fire by 
" which they are to be consumed. Says the apostle, 
" the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it 
" is. If any one's work abide, which he hath built, 
"he shall receive a reward. If any one's work be 

iv. and v. and x. — Contra Ceisum. About a. d. 248 or 249. Lib. 
iv. cap. 10, p. 507. cap. 13, p. 509. cap. 28, p. 521. Lib. v. cap. 21, 
p. 594. cap. 15 and 16, pp. 588,589. Lib. viii. cap. 72, pp.795, 796. 



OF UNIVERSALIS}!. 



103 



"burned, he shall suffer loss. (1 Cor. iii. 13 — 15.) 
" What else is here meant by the work which is to 
" be burned, than whatever arises from iniquity ? Our 
" God is, accordingly, a consuming fire, in the sense I 
u have mentioned. He shall come also as a refiner's 
u fire, to purify rational nature from the alloy of wick- 
" edness, and from other impure matter which has 
" adulterated, if I may so say, the intellectual gold 
" and silver. Rivers of fire are, likewise, said to go 
" forth before the face of God, for the purpose of 
" consuming whatever of evil is admixed in all the 
"soul." 19 

Again : Celsus had treated, as very extravagant, 
the expectation of Christians that all the nations of 
the eaith should at length agree in one system of be- 
lief and practice. On this, Origen observed, " it is 
" here necessary to prove that all rational beings, not 
" only may, but actually shall, unite in one law. 
" The Stoics say that when the most powerful of the 
" elements shall prevail, then will come the universal 
" conflagration, and all things be converted into fire ; 
" but we assert that the Word, who is the wisdom of 
u God, shall bring together all intelligent creatures, 
" and convert them into his own perfection, through 
" the instrumentality of their free will and of their 
" exertions. For, though among the disorders of the 
" body there are, indeed, some which the medical 
" art cannot heal, yet we deny that of all the vices of 
" the soul, there is any which the supreme Word can- 
" not cure. For the Word is more powerful than all 

19 - Contra Celsum Lib. iv. cap. 13, p. 509. 



104 



THE ANCIENT HISTORY 



" the diseases of the soul ; and he applies his remedies 
"to every one, according to the pleasure of God. 
" And the consummation of all things will be the ex- 
tinction of sin; but whether it shall then be so 
" abolished as never to revive again in the universe, 
"does not belong to the present discourse to show. 
" What relates, however, to the entire abolition of sin 
" and the reformation of every soul, may be obscurely 
" traced in many of the prophecies ; for, there we 
"discover that the name of God is to be invoked by 
"all, so that all shall serve him with one consent ; 
" that the reproach of contumely is to be taken away, 
"and that there is to be no more sin, nor vain words, 
"nor treacherous tongue. This may not, indeed, take 
"place with mankind in the present life, but be ac- 
" complished after they shall have been liberated from 
" the body." 20 

XII. In all his works, Origen freely uses the ex- 
pressions everlasting fire, everlasting punishment , fyc. 
without any explanation, such as our modern prepos- 
sessions would render necessary, to prevent a misun- 
derstanding. It should also be particularly remarked, 
that among the numerous passages in which he ad- 
vances Universalism, there is not an instance of his 
treating it in the way of controversy with the ortho- 
dox ; and that, on the other hand, they themselves 
did not, so far as we can discover, censure or oppose 
it. Sometimes he avails himself of its peculiar prin- 
ciples to vindicate Christianity from the reproaches 
or witticisms of the heathens, and to maintain the be- 

20 - Contra Celsum Lib. viii. cap. 72, pp. 795, 796. 



OF UNIVERSALISM. 



105 



nevolence of the one God against the objections of 
the Gnostics. Sometimes, again, he states and defines 
it, in a formal and labored manner ; but in most cases 
he introduces it incidentally, either as the natural re- 
sult of some well-known Christian principle, or as the 
positive doctrine of particular Scriptures. 21 

21 • I subjoin the principal texts that he adduced in favor of 
Universalism. Those from the Old Testament are translated ac- 
cording to the Septuagint version, which Origen, like all the an- 
cient fathers, followed. 

Ps. xxxi. 19. How great is the multitude of thy favors, Lord, 
which thou hast laid up in secret for those who shall fear thee ! — 
Ps. lxxviii. 30 — 35. Even while their meat was yet in their mouth 
the anger of God came up against them, and slew them in their 
fatness, and crippled the chosen ones of Israel. In all this they 
still sinned, and belived not his wondrous works : therefore their 
days passed away in vanity, and their years, with speed. But 
when he had slain them, then they sought him, and returned, and 
came quickly to God ; and they remembered that God icas their 
helper, and that God the Most High teas their redeemer. — Ps. ex. 
1, 2. The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou at my right hand, 
till I make thine enemies thy footstool, Out of Zion the Lord 
will send thee a rod of power; rule thou in the midst of thine 
enemies. — Isa. iv. 4. For the Lord shall wash away the filth of 
the sons and of the daughters of Zion, and cleanse the blood from 
the midst of them by the spirit of judgement and by the spirit of 
burning. — Isa. xii. 1, 2. And in that day thou wilt say, I bless 
thee, O Lord ; for though thou w"ast angry with me, thou hast 
turned away thy fury and pitied me. Behold, God is my Sa- 
viour ; I will trust in him and not be afraid ; because the Lord is 
my glory and my praise, and hath saved me. — Isa. xxiv. And 
the Lord shall bring his hand upon the host of heaven, even up- 
on the kings of this land ; and they shall gather the congregation 
thereof to the prison, and shall shut them up in the strong hold. 
Their visitation shall be for many generations. But the brick shall 
melt, and the wall shall fall ; because the Lord shall reign from 
Zion and from Jerusalem, and be glorified in the presence of the 
elders. — Isa xlvii. 14. Behold, they shall all be burned in the fire, 
as stubble, and they shall not deliver their soul from the flame. 
Thou hast coals of fire ; sit upon them; they will be a help to 
thee. — Ezek. xvi. 53 — 55. And I will restore their apostacies, 
even the apostacy of Sodom and of her daughters; and I will 
restore the apostacy of Samaria and of her daughters ; and I will 
restore thine apostacy in the midst of them, that thou mayest bear 
thy punishment, and be put to shame for all thou hast done to 
provoke me to anger. And thy sister Sodom and her daughters 
shall be restored as at the beginning; and thou and thy daughters 



106 



THE ANCIENT HISTORY 



In two or three places, however, he represents the 
salvation of all men as belonging, in some sense, to 
the Christian mysteries, which should not be too free- 
ly divulged. But we must observe that, in this, he 
only applied a rule which the orthodox of his age 

shall be restored to your former state. — Hosea xiv. 3,4. We will 
no more say to the work of our own bands, Ye are our Gods. 
He who is in thee shall have mercy on the fatherless. / icill 
heal their habitations ; I will love them openly; for he hath turn- 
ed away my wrath from himself. — Mich vii. 8, 9. Exult not over 
me, O mine enemy ; though I have fallen, I shall rise, though I 
should sit in darkness, the Lord will give me light. I will sus- 
tain the anger of the Lord, until he justify my cause, for I have 
sinned against him. He will do me justice, and bring me into 
light, and I shall behold his righteousness. — Malachi iii. 2, 3. 
Who shall abide the day of his coming ? or who shall be able to 
endure his appearance? For he cometh as the fire of a re- 
finer's furnace, and as the soap of the fullers. He shall sit as a 
refiner and purifier of silver and of gold ; and he shall purify the 
sons of Levi, and melt them as gold and silver. Then shall they 
present to the Lord an offering in righteousness. — Matt. v. 26. 
Verily I say unto thee, thou shalt by no means come out thence 
till thou hast paid the uttermost farthing. — Matt, xviii. 12, 13. 
[Parable of the Lost Sheep.] — John x. 16. And other sheep I 
have, which are not of this fold : them also I must bring, and 
they shall hear my voice ; and there shall be one fold and one 
shepherd. — Rorn. viii. 20 — 23. For the creature was made sub- 
ject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath sub- 
jected the same in hope ; because the creature itself also shall 
be delivered from the bondage of corruption, into the glorious 
liberty of the children of God. For we know that the whole 
creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now ; and 
not only they, but ourselves -also, which have the first fruits of 
the spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for 
the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body. — Rom. xi. 25, 
26. For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of 
this mystery, (lest ye should be wise in your own conceits) that 
blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the 
Gentiles be come in ; and so all Israel shall be saved. — Verse 32. 
For God hath concluded them all in unbelief, that he might have 
mercy upon all. — 1 Cor. iii. 13 — 15. Every man's work shall be 
made manifest ; for the day shall declare it, because it shall be 
revealed by fire ; and the fire shall try every man's work, of 
what sort it is . If any man's work abide which he hath built 
thereupon, he shall receive a reward. If any man's work shall 
be burned, he shall suffer loss; but he himself shall be saved, 
yet so as by fire. — 1 Cor. xv. 24 — 28. Then cometh the end, 
when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the 



OF UNIVERSALISM. 



107 



held with respect to several points in their common 
faith. They used much caution in avowing some of 
their tenets, particularly concerning Antichrist and the 
near approach of the end of the world. Even the 
form of their creed, and the rites of the Lord's sup- 
per, were concealed, as mysteries, from the uninitiat- 
ed. 22 Indeed, within the church itself, there was a 
series of doctrines appropriated to the maturer believ- 
ers, and withheld from the less disciplined members. 
This will help to account for the caution which Ori- 
gen sometimes recommended in promulgating Univer- 
salism. Commenting on that text in Romans (xi. 26, 
27,) where St. Paul denominates the salvation of all 

Father ; when he shall have put down all rule, and all authority, 
and power. For he must reign till he hath put all enemies un- 
der his feet. Death, the last enemy, shall be destroyed. For 
He hath put all things under his feet. But when he saith, all 
things are put under him, it is manifest that he is excepted which 
did put all things under him. And when all things shall be sub- 
dued unto him, then shall the Son also himself be subject unto 
him, that put all things under him, that God may be all in all. — 
Verse 54. So when this corruptible shall have put on incorrup- 
tion and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be 
brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up 
in victory. — Eph. i. ( J, 10. Having made known unto us the 
mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he 
hath purposed in himself : that in the dispensation of the fulness 
of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, 
both which are in heaven, and which are on earth, even in 
him. — Eph. ii. 7. That in the ages to come, he might show the 
exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness towards us, through 
Christ Jesus. — Eph. iv. 13. Till we all come in the unity of 
the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a per- 
fect man, unto the measure of the stature of th« fulness of 
Christ. — 1 Tim. iv. 10. For therefore we both labor and suffer 
reproach, because we trust in the living God, who is the Saviour 
of all men, specially of those that believe. — 1 Pet. iii. 19, 20. 
By which, also, he went and preached unto the spirits in prison, 
which sometime were disobedient, when once the long-suffering 
of God waited in the days of Noah, &c. — 1 John ii. 1, 2. If any 
man sin, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, the 
righteous : and he is the propitiation for our sins ; and not for 
ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world. 

22 - Mosheim. dc Reb. Christian, ante Constant, pp. 304, 305. 



108 



THE ANCIENT HISTORY 



Israel, and of the Gentile world, a mystery, he takes 
particular notice of this terra, and then says, " the 
" word of the gospel in the present life, purifies the 
" saints, whether Israelites or Gentiles, according 
" to that expression of our Lord, now ye are clean 
" through the word I have spoken unto you. (John 
"xy. 3.) But he who shall have spurned the cleans- 
" ing which is effected by the Gospel of God, will 
" reserve himself for a dreadful and penal course of 
66 purification ; for the fire of hell shall, by its tor- 
"ments, purify him whom neither the apostolic doc- 
" trine nor the evangelical word has cleansed : as it is 
"written, I will thoroughly purify you -with fire. 
" (Isa. i. 25.) But how long, or for how many ages, 
" sin-ners shall be tormented in this course of purifica- 
" tion which is effected by the pain of fire, he only 
" knows to whom the Father hath committed all 
" judgement, and who so loved his creatures that for 
" them he laid aside the form of God, took the form 
" of a servant, and humbled himself unto death, that 
" all men mi^ht be saved and come to the knowledge 
" of the truth. Nevertheless, we ought always to re- 
" member that the apostle would have the text now 
"under consideration, regarded as a mystery ; so that 
" the faithful and thoroughly instructed should conceal 
" its meaning among themselves, as a mystery of God, 
"nor obtrude it every where upon the imperfect and 
"those of less capacity. For says the Scripture, it is 
"good to keep close the mystery of the king. (Tobit. 
" xii, 7.)" 23 Such is his suggestion. 

23 - Coment. in Epist. ad Rom. Lib. viii. cap. 12. The other 
passage of this kind, is Contra Celsum Lib. v. cap. 15. 



OF UNIVERSALIS*!. 



109 



It may be difficult to reconcile it with the undenia- 
ble fact that he himself was in the habit of publishing 
this secret doctrine in his works, and of proclaiming it 
in his sermons, or homilies, before indiscriminate con- 
gregations. Of this species of inconsistency, howev- 
er, there are remarkable instances, not only among 
the ancients, but also among the moderns ; who some- 
times declare, in public, the secret will of God, and 
proclaim the doctrine of universal decree, which they 
contend, the meanwhile, should be rather withheld 
than divulged. 



10 



CHAPTER V. 



[Origen's Scholars and Coternporaries.] 

I. With the account of Origen naturally belongs a 
view of the extent to which Universalism prevailed in 
his time, together with some notice of the more emi- 
nent of its believers among his coternporaries. But, 
here, the clear light of history forsakes us. In the 
lapse of ten or fifteen centuries, every document, if 
such there was, which might have pointed out the 
state of the doctrine, has perished ; and *we are left to 
the uncertainty of conjecture, guided only by a cir- 
cumstantial evidence, scanty and indistinct. 

In attempting to gather some general opinion out of 
this obscurity, we must place no great reliance on any 
supposed effect which the plain testimonies of Scrip- 
ture ought to have had upon the common belief of 
that time ; for ecclesiastical history show r s that, in 
every age, Christians have taken their sentiments from 
other sources than immediately from the Bible. Nor 
must we adopt the convenient axiom of some enthu- 
siasts, that every essential Christian truth, or what we 
deem such, has found an uninterrupted succession of 
adherents, from Christ to the present time ; for when 
we assume this ground, we forsake, at once, the re- 
gion of history, for that of mere hypothesis. We 
must, in the present case, judge what is probable, only 



OF UNIVERSALISM. 



Ill 



from what is known : and remember, the meanwhile, 
that we may still err in our conclusions. 

It would certainly be unreasonable to suppose that 
the great authority of Clemens Alexandrinus, and the 
vast influence of Origen, could have failed to secure 
many believers in all their prominent tenets. Were 
we to take into our account all their disciples, patrons 
and admiring friends, or even those of the latter alone, 
we should have the main body of the bishops and 
churches throughout all the East. Those of Arabia 
regarded him as the great and successful champion of 
the faith ; in Palestine and Phoenicia, his authority in 
doctrine was almost absolute ; in Cappadocia, his in- 
structions were eagerly sought and followed ; and in 
the remote province of Pontus, his scholars stood first 
among the bishops ; Greece had long esteemed and 
revered him ; and even in Egypt, notwithstanding the 
quarrel of Demetrius, it is evident that the churches, 
together with the presbyters in general, and many of 
their bishops, were warmly attached to Origen. But 
to reckon all these, barely on this account, as Univer- 
salists, would certainly be extravagant : Many of his 
advocates probably regarded him only for his astonish- 
ing genius, his universal erudition, his illustrious vir- 
tue, or the services he had rendered the church ; 
some, perhaps, considered him merely as a persecuted 
man, and, overlooking his harmless peculiarities, felt 
it their duty to defend him against injustice. It must 
also be remarked, that as his Universalism was not 
made a matter of complaint, we can draw but little 
evidence of an agreement in that particular, from 
mere friendship and adherence to him ; but this ch> 



112 



THE ANCIENT HISTORY 



cumstance, at the same time, leads us strongly to sus- 
pect that a doctrine, so momentous and yet unim- 
peached, prevailed among his adversaries as well as 
among his followers. 

Without attempting, then, the impracticable task 01 
exploring the real extent of the doctrine at this peri- 
od, I shall only select from the Eastern or Greek 
churches, which were the principal sphere of Origen's 
influence, some eminent individuals, whose intimacy 
with him, veneration for his opinions, and peculiar re- 
gard for his expositions of the Scripture, can hardly 
be taken into view without producing a conviction 
that they were Universalists. 

II. Among these, the venerable Alexander, bishop 
of Jesusalem, holds a distinguished place. Somewhat 
older, probably, than Origen, he had already studied 
with Pantsenus, w T hen the former became his school- 
fellow under Clemens Alexandrinus. In this situa- 
tion, the two scholars formed a friendship which was 
to endure through life. After the interruption of their 
studies by the persecution under Severus, we find Al- 
exander in prison at Jerusalem, in A. D. 205 ; at 
which time, his faithful sufferings were cheered, for a 
while, by a visit from his late master Clemens, whom 
he always regarded with great respect. The exact 
period of his release is not known ; but within a few 
years he was chosen bishop of some place in Cappa- 
docia, perhaps of the metropolis. He returned, how- 
ever to Jerusalem, about A. D. 212 ; and, on his ar- 
rival, was unanimously elected colleague with Narcis- 
sus, the superannuated bishop of that city. From this 
time, we hear nothing of him, till Origen visited Pal- 



OF UNIVERSALISM. 



113 



estine, about A. D. 216 ; and the affectionate defer- 
ence he then paid his early friend, together with the 
faithful support he afterwards gave him, has been al- 
ready mentioned. He and Theoctistus appear to 
have taken the lead in the promotion and defence of 
their illustrious guest. Regarding him as their own 
master, they resigned to him, in their respective 
churches, the authority of publicly expounding the 
Scriptures, and instructing the people in religion. 

To Alexander belongs the honor of having estab- 
lished, at Jerusalem, the first ecclesiastical library of 
which there is any account. Though a bishop of 
some eminence, he seems to have written nothing, ex- 
cept common-place letters ; a few sentences only of 
which are extant. In the general persecution under 
Decius, he was arraigned at Cesarea, and again cast 
into prison, where he soon died, A. D. 250. 1 

Of Theoctistus, we have only to add, that after 
presiding with reputation for many years, in the me- 
tropolitan bishopric of Cesarea in Palestine, he died 
not far from A. D. 260. 2 It does not appear that he 
left any writings whatever. 

III. Perhaps we ought here to mention Heraclas, 
the successor of Demetrius, in the bishopric of Alex- 
andria. He was one of those heathens who were 
converted to Christianity in the year 203, by Origen's 
instructions ; and who then entered the great Cate- 
chetical School under his care. Heraclas was soon 

l - Cave's Lives of the Fathers, Chap. Clem. Alexand. § 4 and 
5; and Chap. Origen, § 22; and Chronol. Table, Ann. 212. Al- 
so Euseb. Hist. Eccl. Lib. vi. cap. 14. I have omitted, in this ac- 
count, a vision or two. 2 - Euseb. Hist. Eccl. Lib. vi. cap. 46, 
and Lib. vii. cap. 14. ~ 

10* 



114 



THE ANCIENT HISTORY 



called to witness the sacrifice of his own brother, 'a 
fellow-convert and disciple, among the early martyrs 
with which this seminary was honored. Pursuing his 
studies, he seems to have become the favorite of his 
master, since he was at length selected as his assist- 
ant, when Origen found the increasing duties of the 
school too numerous for his sole management. On 
the flight of the latter from Alexandria, in A. D. 231, 
Heraclas succeeded him in the presidency ; and about 
a year afterwards, on the death of Demetrius, he was 
promoted to the Alexandrian bishopric, the second for 
dignity and influence, in all Christendom. Here he 
continued to govern the churches, till his death, in A. 
D. 247, or 248 ; when Dionysius the Great, another 
disciple and friend of Origen, succeeded him. 

Heraclas seems to have been of a quiet and philo- 
sophic disposition. He had the reputation of exten- 
sive learning, particularly in secular literature, for 
which he, perhaps, entertained a decided partiality ; 
for on his elevation to the bishopric, he adopted, and 
ever afterwards wore, the philosopher's robe as his 
distinguishing habit. 3 He has left no writings, 

IV. Ambrosius, the convert, patron, and familiar 
friend of Origen, can hardly be refused, by the most 
skeptical, a place among the believers in Universalism. 
It was at his request, and by his pecuniary aid, that 
Origen composed several of the works in which that 
doctrine is found. So zealous was he to perfect him- 
self in the whole system of his master, that during some 
years in which they were almost constantly together, 



*• Euseb. Hist. Eccl. Lib. vi. cap. 3, 15, 20, 26, 31, 35. 



OF UNIVERSALISM. 



115 



he suffered scarcely a leisure moment to escape with- 
out additional instruction from him on religion. Their 
meals and their walks, their morning and their even- 
ing hours, were devoted to investigations of the Scrip- 
tures, and to the solution of difficult questions. We 
have only to add, that he was ordained deacon in the 
church of Alexandria, and that he died before Origen. 
It is said that some of his Letters, extant in Jerome's 
time, but long since lost, except a short fragment, 
evinced considerable genius. 4 

V. Firmilian, who, after returning from his studies, 
presided with celebrity over the churches of Cappa- 
docia, entertained so warm an affection for his former 
master, and so great a regard for his doctrine, that he 
made several journies into Palestine, in order to enjoy 
his society, and attend his instructions. At length he 
prevailed on Origen to visit Cappadocia, in turn, and 
to gratify the common wish of the churches there, by 
imparting to them those treasures of religious know- 
ledge which he himself had so much admired, and 
which they were so desirous to obtain. 
'^Cesarea, the metropolis of Cappadocia, stood on 
the northern declivity, at the foot of Mount Argaeus ; 
which, rising to the south above the clouds, looked 
down on the whole province, and from its summit of 
everlasting snow, afforded indistinct views, in opposite 
directions, of the remote waters of the Euxine and the 
Mediterranean. In this great city, of perhaps four 
hundred thousand inhabitants, 5 Firmilian was chosen 

_ 4 * Cave's Lives, &c. Chap. Origen, § 10; and Historia Litera- 
ria, cap. Ambrosius. Also Du Pin's Bibliotheca Patrum, Art. 
Ambrose and Tryphon. 

5 » D'Anville's Ancient Geography. And Rees' Cyclopedia," 
Art. Cesarea. 



116 



THE ANCIENT HISTORY 



bishop, not far from A. D, 234, over the churches 
in that region. He soon became eminent and con- 
siderably known throughout Christendom, by his ex- 
tensive correspondence, and the active part he took in 
the general concerns of the church. On the famous 
question, which began to be agitated about A, D. 
253. concerning the validity of baptism administered 
by heretics, he, like the churches of Asia in general, 
maintained the negative ; and in the violent conten- 
tion which raged upon that point, between the two 
western bishops, Stephen of Rome, and Cyprian of 
Carthage, he accordingly sided with the latter. Soon 
after this, at the numerous synod held in Antioch, A. 
D. 264, against the unitarian Paul of Samosata, Fir- 
milian is thought to have presided, and to have pre- 
vented his condemnation, being either favorable to his 
sentiment, or perhaps deceived with the evasions prac- 
tised by the accused. As the matter was not put to 
rest, he was called to a second council, held there on 
the same subject, and finally to a third ; in going to 
which he died on the way, at the city of Tarsus, A. 
D. 269 or 270, He has left no writings > except a 
long Letter, on the rebaptizing of heretics, addressed 
to Cyprian, In this, we discover that Firmilian en- 
tertained the common notion of that period, that bap- 
tism, administered by proper authority, conferred re- 
mission of sins and the spiritual new birth ; that he 
held the prevailing faith respecting the mysterious 
tricks of demons, and their ordinary interference with 
the concerns of life ; and that the good man was cap- 
able of sarcasm, and boisterous invective, which he 
pours out profusely against Stephen of Rome. The 



OF UNIVERSALIS*!. 



117 



subject, however, leads to no discovery of his senti- 
ments concerning endless punishment, or universal 
salvation. 6 

VI. The last, whom I here mention, are the two 
brothers, Gregory Thaumaturgus, 7 and Athenodorus, 
Born of a rich and noble family at Neocesarea, the 
capital of Pontus, they were brought up in a manner 
suitable to their birth and fortune, and instructed in 
heathenism, the common religion of the place. When 
Gregory was about fourteen years old, their father 
died, and their mother, assuming the care of their 
education, placed them successively under different 
masters, with whom they studied Rhetoric, the Latin 
language, and the Roman laws. At length their 
sister removing to Palestine, the Governor of which 
had appointed her husband gn§ of his assessors or 
counsellors, the brothers accompanied her as far as 
Berytus in Phoenicia, where was a celebrated school 
for the study of law. This happened about the time 
of Origen's flight from Egypt, in A. D. 231 ; and the 
youths, eager to see and converse with a man of his 
renown, went to visit him at Cesarea. Here they 
were at length prevailed upon, by his entreaties, to 
apply themselves to the study of philosophy, the in- 
troduction, as he considered it, to the science of relig- 
ion ; and when they had made sufficient progress, he 
led them to the study of the Scriptures, explaining to 
them, as they proceeded, the obscure and difficult 

6 - Firmiliani Epistola ad Cyprianum, is the Epist. lxxv. inter 
Cypriani Opera. Edit. Baluzii. For his life, see Cave's Lives, &c. 
Chap. Origen, § 16 ; and Hist. Literaria. cap. Firmilianus. Con- 
sult also Lardner's Credibility, &c. Chap. Firmilian. 7 . His name 
originally was Theodoras. 



118 



THE ANCIENT HISTORY 



passages. In this way, he trained them up to a sys- 
tematical knowledge and ardent love of Christianity, 
which they had. indeed, begun to regard with a favor- 
able eye when they left Pontus. It is worthy of re- 
mark that in the early part of their residence in Pales- 
tine, Firmilian was their fellow student, with whom 
they then formed an acquaintance, which the future 
circumstances and events of their lives must have cher- 
ished. 

Having remained with Origen about five years, 
they were recalled to their native country. At their 
departure, Gregory pronounced in public his Pane- 
gyric on Origen, yet extant, in which he lavishes the 
most extravagant praise on the genius and doctrine of 
his master, recounts the history of their acquaintance 
with each other, and laments, with fulsome declama- 
tion, the necessity that tore them asunder. On the 
return of the brothers to Neocesarea, it is said that 
the inhabitants entertained so high sn expectation 
of Gregory's talents and acquirements, that, though 
heathens, they desired him to reside among them as a 
public instructer of philosophy and virtue. He soon 
received, also, a letter from Origen, commending his 
abilities, and urging him to prosecute his study of the 
Scriptures and of the Christian religion. But, dislik- 
ing the cares of a public life, or modestly distrusting 
his qualifications, he complied neither with the request 
of the citizens, nor with the evident wishes of his late 
master, and withdrew to some obscure retreat, in order 
to lead a solitary and contemplative life. A certain 
bishop of that country, however, pursued him with 
unwearied solicitations to devote himself to the public 



OF UNIVERSALISM. 



119 



service of Christianity ; and overcoming at length his 
reluctance, ordained him about A. D. 240, or 245. 

Neocesarea, an inland place, of considerable size,* 
on the river Lycus, had scarcely been visited, as yet, 
by the light of the gospel ; but when the popular 
Gregory entered on his ministry there, things assumed 
a new aspect. His success was surprising. A large 
congregation was soon gathered ; the number of his 
converts rapidly increased ; and eventually a stately 
church, or Christian temple, was erected : the first of 
the kind, of which we have any distinct account in 
ecclesiastical history. In the general persecution of 
A. D. 250, he and his people fled to caves and 
deserts for safety ; but when the brief, yet violent^ 
tempest subsided, he returned with such of his breth- 
ren as had survived. About ten years afterwards, an 
irruption of the northern barbarians carried universal 
desolation and distress through Pontus and other Ro- 
man provinces ; and the heathen inhabitants, though 
sufferers in common with the christian, seem to have 
taken advantage of the general confusion which en- 
sued, to indulge their malice. Many of the believers 
having denied their faith in order to save their lives, 
and others having committed depredations on the 
property of those who had fled, Gregory was per- 
mit now bears the name of Niksar ; and stands in a luxuriant 
and delightful valley, through which, to the west of the city, 
flows the river, called Kelki Irmak, from south to north. Around, 
but at some distance, rise the mountains, covered with forests of 
the wildest growth, and presenting the most romantic and pictur- 
esque views. It is thirty miles north east of Tocat; and is placed 
on the map at about eighty miles from the shore of the Black Sea. 
(Morier's Journey through Persia, Armenia, and Asia Minor, pp. 
332, 334. Philadelphia, 1816.) 



120 



THE ANCIENT HISTORY 



suaded, at the request of a neighboring bishop, to 
address them a Canonical Epistle, yet extant, con- 
sisting of authoritative rules to regulate their conduct 
and discipline in those lawless times. In A. D. 264. 
he and Athenodorus, who also was an influential bish- 
op of some place in Pontus. assisted at the council of 
Antioch against Paul of Samosata. Having returned 
to Neocesarea, Gregory soon afterwards died in peace, 
with the satisfaction of leaving but few heathens in 
the city, where, at the beginning of his ministry, 
Christianity had scarcely an advocate. 8 He was 
reckoned among the most eminent bishops of the 
time : but his reputation unfortunately increased and 
grew monstrous after his death, when miracles the 
most ridiculous and incredible were attributed to him, 
so that his name went down to posterity with the sig- 
nificant appellation of Thaumaturgus, or Wonder- 
worker. Besides his Panegyric on Origen and his 
Canonical Epistle, we have his brief Paraphrase on 
Ecclesiastes, 9 but none of these being of a doctrinal 
character, they throw no light on his view T s concerning 
the final extent of salvation, or the nature and result 

s - In the account of Gregory Thaumaturgus and Athenodorus, 
I have generally followed Lardner, who allows but little credit to 
Gregory Nyssen's legendary tale. Du Pin, also, seems to have 
discarded it. But Cave and some others, adopt the whole, mira- 
cles and all, with veteran credulity. 

9 - Some attribute to him the short Creed, relating solely to the 
Trinity, which Gregory Nyssen says was brought to him from 
heaven by St. John and the Virgin Mary. It is probable, how- 
ever, that Gregory Thaumaturgus never saw it. (See Lardner's 
Credibility, &c. Chap. Gregory Thaumat.) The Brevis Exposi- 
tio Fidei, which Cave, in his Lives of the Fathers, had ascribed 
to Gregory, is allowed, in his Hist. Literaria, to be supposititious ; 
in which he agrees with Du Pin, Fabricius, Tillemont, and Lard- 
ner. 



OF UNIVERSALISM. 



121 



of future punishment. An ancient writer, 10 however, 
intimates, if I mistake him not, that Gregory Thau- 
maturgus was well known to have held, with his mas- 
ter, the doctrine of Universal Restoration. 

VII. With him ends our select catalogue of Ori- 
gen's cotemporary followers. It may serve, at least, 
to point out some of the circumstances, which, to- 
gether with the general diffusion of his writings, 
tended to spread his sentiments widely through the 
East. What other particular causes operated to dif- 
fuse or cherish Universalism among the orthodox of 
this period, it is in vain to enquire ; but we have no 
reason to believe that it was confined exclusively to 
his adherents. 

As to the different bodies of heretics, it is probable 
that among the Gnostics the doctrine remained in the 
same state as formerly ; and among those of other 
kinds, it may have found some believers and advo- 
cates. 11 

10 - Rufmus (Invect. inHieronym. Lib. i. prope jinem, inter Hie- 
ronymi. Opp. Tom, iv. Part. i. p. 406, Edit. Martian ay) alludes to 
the fact, as notorious, that Gregory Thaumaturgus erred with Ori- 
gen ; and it is of Universalism that he is speaking. 

n - The author of the anonymous book called Prcedestinatus, 
attributed by some to Prismasius an African bishop of the sixth 
century, but considered, by others, of uncertain date and origin, 
says that one " Ampullianus, a heretic of Bithynia, avowed the 
" following error: that all the guilty, together with the devil and 
u the demons, toill be thoroughly purified in Gehenna, or hell, and 
" come out thence toholly immaculate ; and when he had raised 
"the whole church against himself, on this account, he corrupted 
" the works of Origen, especially the books Of Principles, that he 
" might sanction his own sentiments by their authority. " (Prse- 
destinat. Lib. i.Haeres.43, inter Simondi Opera, Tom.i.) When 
this Ampullianus lived, he does not inform us ; nor is his name so 
much as mentioned by any other ancient writer. But though the 
account of his having inserted the alleged error in Origen's works, 
is demonstrably untrue, and universally disregarded, there yet 
maybe a question whether there was not a heretic of that name 

11 



122 



THE ANCIENT HISTORY 



VIII. Turning our eyes, for a moment, from the 
Greek churches, to a hasty survey of the Western or 
Latin, it may be remarked that here the influence of 
Origen, as well as of the other Greek fathers, was 
partial and feeble, on account of the difference of lan- 
guage, which prevented intimacy. There was, also, a 
peculiarity in the customs, manners, and general turn 
of thought which distinguished the Christians of the 
West. We perceive no certain 12 traces of Universa- 
lism among them at this period. Indeed, the materi- 
als for determining, with precision, their sentiments on 
a number of points, are rather scanty. Though they 
had several bishops and writers of temporary renown, 
there was but one who still holds any distinguished 
place in ecclesiastical history. This was the eloquent, 

in Biihynia, sometime during this century, who held the doctrine 
of Universal Restoration. At any later period he could not well 
have escaped the notice of other writers, whose works are extant; 
and indeed it seems difficult to account for their profound silence, 
in any way whatever, short of denying the whole story. 

12 - Novatus, or as he is often called, Novatian, an eminent pres- 
byter of Rome, who contested the bishopric of the church there 
with Cornelius, advanced something like Universalism. He ex- 
tolled in the highest, though in general terms, the unbounded 
goodness of God ; (De Regula Fidei, cap. ii. prope finem. Edit. 
Jackson. Lond. 1728. pp. 23 — 25.) and maintained that the wrath, 
indignation, and hatred of the Lord, so called, are not such passions 
in him as bear the same name in man j but that they are opera- 
tions in the divine mind which are directed solely to our puri- 
fication. (De R egula Fidei cap. iv.) In short he asserted the pecul- 
iar principles of Universalism ; but whether he pursued them out 
to their necessary result, does not appear. 

Novatus flourished from A. D. 250, onwards, for several years. 
After his contest for the bishopric, in which he was once elected, 
he was condemned by his more fortunate rival, and excommuni- 
cated for obstinately refusing to admit to the communion such 
members as had once fallen from their purity or steadfastness, 
however penitent they might become. A considerable party at- 
tached itself to him, which maintained his opinion and practice, 
on this point, till the seventh century, and which was therefore 
occasionally treated as heretical, and at other times merely as 
schismatical. 



OF UNIVERSALISM. 



123 



the active and resolute Cyprian, who presided in the 
bishopric of Carthage, from about A. D, 249, till his 

martyrdom in the year 258. Formerly 
a. d. 249, a heathen professor of Rhetoric, he be- 
to 258, came, on his conversion, one of the most 

zealous advocates of the Christian cause, 
sold his large estate to supply himself with the means 
of charity, and devoted all his time and all his powers 
to the service in which he had engaged, so late in life. 
As a prelate, he must always stand distinguished by 
his enterprizing and commanding talents ; and as a 
writer, he evinces considerable ability, though no ex- 
traordinary learning. His study, however, was not 
doctrine, but discipline, the art of governing his 
churches, and particularly the management of the 
ecclesiastical concerns in times of great perplexity 
and danger. For this difficult task he was qualified 
by a genius of ready resource, a bold decision, and a 
vehemence approaching to enthusiasm, which often 
carried him through the execution of his designs with 
surprising promptness, though at the expense of per- 
petual contention. We may lament, rather than 
wonder, that he had the faults natural to such a 
character, — ambition and a strong propensity to 
domineer ; and that his conduct appears sometimes 
dictated by self-will and passion. While he sternly 
opposed the arrogance of the Roman bishop, he him- 
self cherished extravagant notions of episcopal author- 
ity, and unwarily promoted that ecclesiastical tyranny 
which was, at length, to enslave the Christian world. 
But a worse fault than all these, at least in moral 
principle, aside from its general consequences, was 



124 



THE ANCIENT HISTORY 



his knavish assertion of visions and immediate revela- 
tions from God, as his authority and justification, 
whenever he encroached on the rights of others, or 
resorted to unpopular measures. 

As he seems to have had little acquaintance with 
the Greek fathers, except Firmilian, and perhaps none 
with Origen, his views of the future state may be re- 
garded as, in some degree, a specimen of those that 
prevailed in the West. He held a temporary and 
mild purgatory for the less deserving saints ; 13 but 
for impenitent unbelievers an endless punishment. 14 
And it is too manifest that he indulged, at times, the 
spirit of a doctrine so congenial with the hot African 
temper : " O what a glorious day, " says he, " will 
" come, when the Lord shall begin to recount his peo- 
" pie and to adjudge their rewards, to send the guilty 
"into hell, to condemn our persecutors to the per- 
" petual fire of penal flames, and to bestow on us the 
"reward of faith and devotedness to him! What 
" glory, what joy, to be admitted to see God. to be 
" honored, to partake of the joy of eternal light and 
"salvation with Christ the Lord your God ; to salute 
"Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and all the patriarchs 
" and prophets, apostles and martyrs, to rejoice with 
" the righteous, the friends of God, in the pleasures of 
"immortality ! When that revelation shall come, 
" when the beauty of God shall shine upon us, we 
" shall be as happy as the deserters and rebellious will 
" be miserable in inextinguishable fire. " 15 

13 - Cypriani Epist. ad Antonianum lii. p. 72. Edit. Baluzii, 
Paris. 1726. 14 - Cypriani Lib. contra Demetrian. p. 224. And 
Epist. ad CJerum, p. 13 and passim. 

15 - Cypriani Epist. ad Thibaritanos, lvi. fine pp. 93, 94. Milner 



OF UNIVERSALISM. 



125 



Cyprian frequently imitates Tertullian, and some- 
times borrows from him ; and, it is said, he was so 
partial to that stern and gloomy enthusiast, that he 
daily read his works, habitually calling out, as he sat 
down, Give me my Master. His confident expecta- 
tion of the immediate end of the world, and near ap- 
proach of the general judgement, conspired, with his 
naturally warm temper, to cherish a high degree of 
devotional fervor ; and of all the earthly fathers, there 
was none whose general form of expression approach- 
ed so near that of the more enthusiastic or fanatical of 
the modern orthodox. Yet his opinions are by no 
means reducible to any creed approved at present : 
He was a trinitarian, but ignorant of predestination 
and irresistible grace ; he held that remission of sins, 
and spiritual regeneration were imparted by the minis- 
ter to the candidate in the rite of water baptism ; that 
true converts might afterwards utterly fall from grace ; 
that good works, particularly prayers, tears, fasting 
and penance, make satisfaction to God for our sins ; 

the orthodox historian, whose translation I have here adopted, 
says seriously, on quoting this passage, that " The palm of heav- 
" enly mindedness belonged to these persecuted saints ; and I 
tc wish, with all our theological improvements, we may obtain a 
" measure of this zeal, amidst the various good things of this life 
" which, as Christians, we at present enjoy." (Church Hist. 
Cent. iii. chap. 12.) A general collection of these heavenly- 
minded exultations, over the anticipated torments of the damned, 
would have satisfied our visionary, that latter ages can boast gen- 
uine instances of Tertullian's and Cyprian's zeal. Had he con- 
sidered, too, that there was some earthly feeling of revenge to 
inspire the joy of the ancients in the damnation of their persecu- 
tors, he must have adjudged the palm to the more disinterested 
moderns ; who, without the aid of provocation, [indulge a much 
more difficult satisfaction in expecting the agonies, not of their 
oppressors, but of their supporters, their kindest benefactors, ancl 
of their own families. 



11* 



126 



THE ANCIENT HISTORY 



and that matrimony is but a sort of tolerated prostitu- 
tion. 

IX, In these particulars, however, he had the agree- 
ment of a large proportion of his cotemporaries through- 
out the East as well as the West. Christianity had 
already assumed many of the peculiar 
a. d. 250, features it now wears in the Romish 
to 270. religion. Salvation, it was represented, 
could be secured only within the pale of 
the orthodox church ; and all the heretics, the excom- 
municated and the dissenters, were exposed equally 
with the heathens, to the torments of hell. These 
separate sects, in their turn, however, usurped, at 
times, the same terrible prerogative, and retorted on 
the catholics their own favorite admonitions. At the 
head of the true church, the clerical body, and par- 
ticularly that of the bishops, possessed, when united, 
an influence uncontrolable, and powerful even when 
divided by their frequent discords. Some of the pre- 
lates began to affect the splendor and magnificence of 
secular nobility, though the sword of persecution hung 
over their heads, and often fell upon them in ruthless 
extermination. The ecclesiastical ceremonies and ordi- 
nances, to which extravagant spiritual efficacy was 
generally attributed, were losing their pristine simplic- 
ity in pomp and tedious parade. Nor was the mo- 
rality of the gospel less perverted : though downright 
monachism had not been introduced into the church, 
yet acts of mortification and penance were regarded as 
superior to ordinary virtue, and a life of rigid absti- 
nence as the favorite institution of heaven. But, as 
might be expected, the manners of the time approach- 



OF UNIVERSALISM. 



127 



ed, at once, the two extremes of austerity and licen- 
tiousness : some who professed the abstinence of celi- 
bacy, even indulged, to the great scandal of the better 
sort, in the possession of concubines from among those 
who had vowed perpetual chastity. 

Amidst this scene of growing corruption, a jealous 
zeal was cherished against all supposed error; and 
the church exhibited the striking, though not singular, 
spectacle, of rage for soundness of faith, in propor- 
tion to the common degeneracy. While the destruc- 
tive persecutions of the heathens, urged at this time 
with unprecedented violence, were drenching the earth 
with Christian blood, the believers, both in the East 
and the West, seemed to devote the intervals of 
repose, to a mad search for non-conformity in doctrine 
and discipline, which they hunted into every corner, 
and condemned with little discrimination. In the 
West, Novatus and his followers were excommuni- 
cated, for their factious conduct, and for their obsti- 
nate exclusion of the lapsed ; and Cyprian and the 
bishop of Rome were engaged in a quarrel about 
rebaptizing heretics. In the East, Noetus and Sabel- 
lius on the one hand, and Paul of Samosata on the 
other, were arraigned and condemned for opposite 
departures from the indefinable and wavering stand- 
ard of trinitarianism, Between the East and the 
West, a controversy was kept up, concerning the 
proper days for fasting, and the time for the celebra- 
tion of the Paschal Feast. In a word, so universal 
was the passion for censure, that scarcely an indi- 
vidual of eminence, escaped reproach from one quarter 
or another. This circumstance will serve to introduce 



128 



THE ANCIENT HISTORY 



us to the subject of the next chapter ; which return- 
ing from our excursion among the cotemporaries of 
Origen, takes up the history of his doctrine, from the 
time of his death. 



APPENDIX TO CHAPTER V. 

I. But in order to avoid an unseasonable interrup- 
tion in that narrative, we must defer the history of 
Origen's doctrine, till we shall have brought into 
notice a new kind of Gnostic Christians. The sect 
of Manicheans began to appear, in the East, about 
this time ; and though small at first, it became, event- 
ually, the most famous of all the parties of oriental 
heretics that ever arose. By gradually drawing into 
itself the older bodies of Gnostics, it swelled, at length, 
to a formidable magnitude ; the number of its con- 
verts, and the talents of some of its members, gave 
it an alarming respectability ; and, so widely were 
its sentiments, under various modifications, diffused 
throughout Christendom, that its influence disturbed 
the church for many succeeding centuries, and reach- 
ed even down to the remote era of the Reformation. 

The author of this heresy was one Mani, a Persian 
philosopher, who appears to have combined a daring 
imagination and a most fertile genius with the austerest 
life and manners. Though educated in the schools 
of the Magi, and thoroughly instructed in the religion 
and studies of his country, he abandoned the ancient 
established faith of Zoroaster, and embraced Christi- 
anity. Like many other converted philosophers, he 
attempted an accommodation between the gospel and 
his former theology. His history is deeply involved 
in contradiction, and mixed with fables \ but if we 



OF UNIVERSALISM. 



129 



may adopt the most probable account. 
About he was, on his conversion, ordained Pres- 
a. d. 265. byter in the city of Ahwaz, about seventy 

miles north of the mouth of the Euphra- 
tes. As his general system of doctrine was too 
manifestly inconsistent with the tenor of the Scrip- 
tures, as well as repugnant to the faith of the few 
Christians already in his country, he announced him- 
self an apostle of Jesus Christ/inspired by heaven to 
complete the imperfect revelation of his Master, by 
declaring the remaining truths which he had not 
divulged, and by fulfilling his ancient promise of a 
Comforter. But whether this was the assumption of 
sincere fanaticism, or the impious pretence of design- 
ing imposture, cannot be absolutely determined. 

Removing, afterwards, to the capital cities of 
Ctesiphon and Ecbatana, he converted, to bis religion, 
the Persian king, the renowned Sapor, and obtained, 
perhaps, the place of tutor to the young prince, Hor- 
mizdas. Emboldened by the royal patronage, and 
growing zealous with the increasing number of his 
followers, he prosecuted a public attack on the old 
religion of the kingdom, in order to substitute his own. 
The ancient and numerous priesthood of Zoroaster 
was alarmed at this daring innovation within the very 
court; the Magi, crowding around the monarch, soon 
succeeded in alienating him from the apostate, and 
in rousing him to avenge the violated faith of his 
people. Mani perceived the change ; and with the 
more faithful of his disciples, fled from the impending 
blow, into Mesopotamia. But on the death of Sapor, 
in A. D. 273, he returned to the Persian court, under 
the favor of the new king, his former pupil ; and 
took up his residence in a strong tower, built for his 
security against his numerous and enraged enemies. 
Meanwhile, his disciples taught his doctrine, with 
success, in various parts of the country, and, perhaps, 
carried it eastward into India. The flattering pros- 



130 



THE ANCIENT HISTORY 



pect of safety and patronage, however, was suddenly 
blasted. The faithful Hormlzdas died in the second 
year of his reign ; and his son, Varanes, on ascending 
the throne, soon yielded to the entreaties or warnings 
of the Magi. Having by a specious pretence, enticed 
the destined victim from his strong hold, he seized 
and put him to death, about A. D. 277. Thus fell 
Mani, probably in middle life ; but the blood of the 
martyr only quickened the growth of his cause. 1 

II. Like some other Gnostics, the Manicheans held 
two Original, Self-existent Principles, the primary 
causes of all things. From the depths of past eternity, 
the Universe existed in two separate and adverse 
regions : the pure and happy world of Light, on the 
one hand, and on the other, the world of Darkness, 
where all was corruption, turbulence and misery. 
Over the realm of Light, which was much the lamer 
of the two, reigned the true God, self-existent, all- 
wise, omnipotent, completely blessed, and therefore 
perfectly good. Innumerable angels, emanating from 
him, filled his tranquil dominion, and partook of his 
uninterrupted enjoyment. In the deep centre of the 
opposite world of primeval darkness, was the abode 
of Hyle, or Satan, the loathsome prince of evil, 
without beginning, but stupid and feeble, though 
unceasingly engaged in malicious craft ; and the 
countless demons he had produced, swarmed through 
his hideous and boisterous realm, waging mutual war- 
fare, and profoundly ignorant, like their king, of the 
existence of the world of light. 

In the eternal lapse of ages, however, an accident 
at length occurred, by which a partial mixture took 
place between the two original substances, hitherto 
distinct. In one of the intestine quarrels which 
continually raged in the kingdom of Hyle, a van- 

L Mosheim (De Rebus Christian. &c. pp. 737 — 740,) has mani- 
fested his usual good sense in gathering from the confused stories 
of antiquity, a probable narative of Mani's Life. 



OF UNIVERSALISM. 



131 



quished party of demons fled to the very confines of 
that world ; and from its mountainous borders, caught 
their first view of the neighboring realm of light. 
Struck with admiration at its splendor and beauty, 
they paused ; their pursuers arrived ; and all, forget- 
ting their mutual hostility, consulted how to gain 
possession of the glorious world before them. An 
expedition was immediately undertaken ; but the all- 
seeing Deity, beholding their approach, despatched a 
body of celestial powers under the command of an 
appointed leader. In the conflict that ensued, the 
forces of darkness were at first partially victorious ; 
and, though eventually repulsed, they succeeded in 
carrying into captivity a sufficient quantity of light 
and divine intelligence, to give them new capacities, 
and to produce a manifest change in their world. 
Fearing, however, that Deity would liberate and 
withdraw that portion of light now in their kingdom, 
they contrived to retain it. For this purpose, they 
made, out of evil matter, a human body, like that 
of the late leader of the celestial forces, whose form 
they remembered ; gave this body a soul merely 
animal, like their own ; and then drew into it the 
captive substance of light, which became a rational 
soul allied to heaven. Thus completely constituted, 
the creature was called Adam, the first of the human 
race. Afterwards, Eve was created in a similar man- 
ner, and with the same diversity of souls ; and it is 
from this diversity that arises the perpetual conflict 
between the sensual and heavenly natures of man. 

The Deity, however, did not relinquish his design 
of reclaiming the celestial substance from the world of 
darkness. In order to provide a suitable dwelling- 
place for man, that his soul might be brought to spurn 
the soft enticements of the body, and return to its 
native mansion, he created our world, midway be- 
tween the primeval spheres of light and darkness, out 
of matter furnished from both of these regions. The 



132 



THE ANCIENT HISTORY 



sun he made of pure fire, and the moon, of uncon- 
taminated water ; the stars and the atmosphere, of a 
substance somewhat tinctured with evil ; and our 
earth, of a matter almost wholly depraved. Here 
was the appointed habitation of Adam ; who, possess- 
ing a large share of celestial nature, persevered awhile 
in rectitude. But the influence of his corrupt consti- 
tution increasing, he yielded, at length, to the bland- 
ishments of Eve, and so transgressed the divine law. 
The superior, rational souls of the first pair, were 
instantly overshadowed and obscured* with darkness, 
and their affections enslaved by the body ; their evil 
propensities gained entire ascendency ; and all their 
posterity, born in the same fallen condition, are free, 
by nature, to do only evil ; or rather, have lost the 
knowledge how to employ their will effectually to 
what is good. 2 

2 * After a long discussion of their notions concerning free-will, 
Beausobre comes to the following conclusions : "1, The Mani- 
" cheans allowed the soul to be free in its origin, and during its 
"state of innocence. For it had power to resist evil, and to 
" overcome it. 2, After its fall it had not absolutely lost that 
"power, but it had lost the use, because it was ignorant of its 
" nature, and of its origin, and of its true interests ; and because 
" concupiscence, which has its seat in the flesh, carries it away 
" by an invincible force to do, or allow what it condems. 3, The 
" gospel of Jesus Christ delivers the soul from that servitude, and 
" gives it sufficient power to subdue sin and to obey the law of 
" God, provided it make use of the helps therein afforded." Af- 
" terwards he adds : " Finally, I allow that the ancient fathers in 
"general say that the Manicheans denied free-Will. The reason 
"is, that the fathers believed and maintained, against the Mar- 
" cionites and Manicheans, that whatever be the state man is in, 
" he has the command over his own actions, and has equally 
"power to do good and evil. Augustine himself reasoned upon 
" this principle, as well as other catholics, his predecessors, so 
" long as he had to do with the Manicheans. But when he came 
"to dispute with the Pelagians, he changed his system. Then, 
"he denied that kind of freedom which he had before defended; 
"and so far as I am able to judge, his sentiment no longer dif- 
" fered from that of the Manicheans, concerning the servitude of 
"the will. lie, however, ascribed that servitude to the corrup- 
" tion which original sin brought into our nature ; whereas, they 
" attributed it to an evil quality eternally inherent in matter." 



OF UNIVERSALIS!*!. 



133 



In order to promote the comfort of man, while on 
earth, but chiefly to aid the work of his restoration, 
the Deity, after the creation of this world, produced 
from his own being two peculiar existences, called 
Christ and the Holy Ghost, who, with himself, con- 
stitute a trinity. Christ, the brightness of eternal 
light, holds his throne in the resplendent orb of the 
sun, and extends his influence to the moon ; the Holy 
Ghost resides in our atmosphere, mollifying its asper- 
ity, cherishing the universal principle of vivification, 
and operating on the minds of men. 

When, for many ages, God had attempted, with 
little success, to reclaim mankind through the min- 
istry of angels and inspired saints, he at length sent 
Christ from his abode in the sun, to visit our world, 
not as a vicarious sufferer, but as an infallible Teacher. 
Assuming only the visionary appearance of a human 
body, the Saviour entered on his mission, instructing 
our fallen race how to forsake the service of the prince 
of darkness, to embrace that of the true God, and to 
subject the body to the government of the soul by a 
life of rigid virtue and extreme austerity. He only 
introduced, without perfecting, the system of Christi- 
anity, so that his first apostles knew but in part, and 
prophesied but in part ; but, near the close of his 
ministry, and just before his seeming apprehension 
and suffering, he promised his disciples to send a 
Comforter, who should lead them into all truth. Ac- 
cordingly, in due time, Mani the Comforter appeared.; 
and not only completed his Master's revelation, but 
also restored that doctrine which Christ had already 
taught, to its original simplicity, by exposing the many 
corruptions introduced by his followers. 

Those souls, who here obey the instructions of 
Christ, ascend, on the death of the vile body, to their 

Hist, de Mantchee, Tom. ii. pp. 447, 448. These conclusions are 
adopted by Lardner, Credibility of the Gospel Hist, part ii. uhap. 
Ixiii. sect, iv* 13. 

12 



134 



THE ANCIENT HISTORY 



native sphere ; but they who neglect, are then sent 
into other bodies of men, brutes, or plants, to repeat 
their mortal course of discipline, until they are fitted 
for heaven. Such, however, as fight against the truth 
and persecute its adherents, are first driven into the 
dominions of the prince of darkness, to be tormented 
awhile in flame, before they transmigrate again upon 
earth. 

At length, in the fulness of times, when all souls, 
or nearly all, shall have been reclaimed, and the cap- 
tive particles of light won back to the kingdom of 
Deity, the whole of this world shall be destroyed by 
fire. Some of the Manicheans, perhaps, held the 
restoration of all souls ; 3 but none of them, the salvation 
of Hyle and his demons. These were independent- 
powers, over whom, so long as they remain in their 
own sphere, the true God claims no jurisdiction. 
After the end of our world, they are to be forever 
restricted to their original empire of darkness, unblest 
with the least mixture of the good substance ; and if 
any human souls shall be found utterly irreclaimable, 
they will be stationed, as a guard, on the frontiers of 
that realm, to keep the evil hosts within their rightful 
dominions. 

Like other Gnostics, the Manicheans denied the 
resurrection of the body. We have only to add that 
they rejected the Old Testament, pretended that 
many parts of the New, especially of the four Gos- 
pels, had been interpolated, either by ignorant or 
designing men ; and that they received the writings of 
Mani, as of canonical authority. 4 

3 - Beausobre, Hist, de Manichee, Tom. ii. pp. 569 — 575. And 
Lardner's Credibility, &c. Chap. Mani and his followers, Sect, 
iv. 18. 

4 - The sources whence I have drawn this short account of 
Mamcheism, arc Moshemii De Rebus Christianorum &c. pp. 
728 — 903 ', Beausobre's large work, Histoire de Manichee et du 
Manicheisme ; and Lardner's Credibility of the Gospel Hist. Part 
ii. Chap, lxiii. Of Beausobre, however, I have made but little 



OF UNIVERSALISM. 



135 



III, To us their scheme of doctrine appears almost 
too monstrous for conception ; but to those brought up 
in the oriental philosophy, it was an ingenious system, 
the fundamental principles of which accorded with all 
their prejudices and habits of thinking. Nor was it 
so utterly shocking to the more simple-minded Greeks ; 
and the advantages it was supposed to offer, in ac- 
counting for the introduction of evil without impli- 
cating the purity and goodness of God, counterbal- 
anced weighty objections, in the opinion of many. 
When it had spread in Persia and other oriental 
countries awhile, it began to appear among the Chris- 
tians in the eastern part of the Roman empire, as 
early, probably, as A. D. 280 ; but, here, its progress 
was, at first, undoubtedly slow, as the orthodox 
fathers do not seem to have taken any notice of it, 
till thirty or forty years afterwards, 

use, except what may be derived from Lardner's remarks, extracts 
and references. 



CHAPTER VL 



[From A. D. 254, to A. D. 390.] 

I. Throughout the long period, of nearly a century 
and a half, to be surveyed in this chapter, there is not 
an intimation found that Origen's Universalism cave 
any offence in the church, notwithstanding his writ- 
ings, the meanwhile, underwent the severest scrutiny, 
and were frequently attacked on other points. In order 
to give a full view of the state of that doctrine in this 
age, we must attempt a narration intricate and often 
digressive, stating not only the opinions of all the prin- 
cipal fathers concerning future punishment, but like- 
wise all the complaints and controversies that arose on 
Origen's sentiments. 1 As we proceed we shall dis- 

*■ Huetii Origeniana, (inter Origenis Opera) particularly Lib. ii. 
cap. 4. directs to nearly all the materials for a history of Origen's 
doctrine. By his doctrine, we mean, of course, not his CJniversa- 
lism in particular, but his general religious system, or rather the 
whole body of his peculiar tenets. Whoever has perused Huet's 
work, will scarcely be repaid for reading the smaller and less 
critical treatise, " Histoire de l'Origenisme, par le P. Louis Dou- 
cin," published at Paris, 1700, in one volume, small 12mo. of 388 
narrow pages ; but even this contains much more information 
than Bishop Rust's " Letter of Resolution concerning Origen, and 
the Chief of his Opinions, which may be found in the first volume 
of The Phenix, a miscellaneous work begun at London in 1707. 
I have seen the following titles, but not the works : " Joh. Hen. 
Horbii Historia Origeniana, sive de ultima origine et progressu 
Haereseos Origenis Adamantii." Franc. 1670 ; and " Berrow's Il- 
lustration and Defence of the Opinions of Origen." 4to. 



OF UNIVERSALISM. 



137 



cover, what is a very important fact, that even the 
few who treated his name with indignity, and bitterly 
censured various parts of his doctrine, uniformly 
passed, in silence, over the prominent tenet of Uni- 
versal Salvation. 

It was but a few years after his death that some of 
his views appear to have been, for the first time, pub- 
licly impeached ; though in this instance, without men- 
tioning his name. Origen had combatted, even in his 
earliest publications, the prevailing notion of Christ's 
personal reign on earth for a thousand years ; and his 
successive attacks, which he continued to urge against 
this point with more than his wonted spirit, had even- 
tually brought it into disrepute, to the great dissatis- 
faction of the few who still adhered to it. 
a. d, 257, Towards the year 260, as is supposed, 

to 263. Nepos, bishop of some place in Egypt, 
published in its defence, a Confutation 
of the Allegorists : a title which aimed, undoubtedly, 
against Origen and his followers. This book, now 
lost, was well received in some parts of Egypt, par- 
ticularly in the district of Arsinoe, south of the lake 
Mceris ; where the doctrine of the Millennium began 
to revive, and in the course of a few years, involved 
several churches in schism. But Dionysius the Great, 
formerly a scholar of Origen, and now bishop of Alex- 
dria, happening in the infected district, about A. D. 
262, succeeded in bringing over all its advocates to 
his own opinions. 2 

II. It will be readily believed that so obscure and 

*• Cave's Lives of the Fathers, Chap. Dionysiu s, § 15. And 
Mosheim, De Rebus Christian. &c. pp. 720—728. 

12* 



138 



THE ANCIENT HISTORY 



momentary a disturbance could not affect the renown 
of Origen. Accordingly, we find that, 
a. d. 280, twenty or thirty years afterwards, to call 

— 290. an author by his name, was generally 

esteemed a peculiar honor ; and it ap- 
pears that he was imitated by some Egyptian writers, 
particularly by the learned Pierius, a presbyter of Al- 
exandria, and by Theognostus, president of the Cate- 
chetical School in that city, — the works of both of 
whom have perished. 3 But though his memory was 
held in general veneration, it seems, nevertheless, that 
the division, originally occasioned by Demetrius, still 
continued, in some degree, among the Egyptian 
churches. 4 

And in Asia, a public attack, more di- 
a. d. 290, rect and hostile than that of Nepos, was, 

— 300. about this time, made upon several points 

of his doctrine. ' Methodius, bishop at 
first of Olympus in Lycia, and then of Tyre, became, 
from some cause unknown, bitterly prejudiced against 
his memory, and sought every means to render it 
odious. He published, professedly against him, a 
treatise On the Resurrection, another On the Pytho- 
ness or Witch of En dor, and a third on Created 
Things ; in all which, as well as in some other 
pieces, he inveighed against his opinions, and some- 
times treated his name with angry abuse. In the first, 
he directed his attacks against such of Origen's notions 
as may be comprised under the following heads, viz. 

3 - See the accounts of Pierius and Theognostus, in Du Pin, 
Lardner, &c. 4 - Petrus Alexandrinus, apud Justiniani Epist. ad 
Menam, quoted by Du Pin. 



OF UNIVERSALISM. 



139 



1, That mankind will rise from the dead with aerial, 
instead of fleshly, bodies ; 2, That in the ages of 
eternity, the saints will become angels ; 3, That hu- 
man souls have existed and sinned in a former state of 
being ; 4, That Adam and Eve were, before their 
transgression, incorporeal spirits ; and 5, that the gar- 
den of Eden, so called, was an abode in heaven, be- 
longing to the pre-existent state. The second work, 
now lost, is said to have been a stricture upon some 
of Origen's notions concerning the Witch of Endor, 
and the apparition of Samuel ; and the third, of which 
only a fragment remains, was a refutation of an opin- 
ion, attributed, perhaps falsely, to him, that the ivorld 
had no beginning, as well as of another, which in 
some sense he doubtless advanced, that the world ex- 
isted long before the six days of creation mentioned 
in Genesis. With these seven or eight particulars, 
there are some points more trivial which Methodius 
selected as obnoxious ; but in all his search for errors, 
Universalism escaped without a censure. 5 After these 
attacks, it seems, he grew more favorably disposed 
towards the object of his late enmity ; and at length 
joined in the general admiration of his talents and vir- 
tues. 6 He was a writer of no great celebrity. 

5 - Du Pin's Biblioth. Pat. Art. Methodius. And Lardner's 
Credibility &c. Chap. Methodius. And Epiphanii Panarium, 
Hseres. lxiv. where most of Methodius On the Resurrection, is 
preserved. Also, Photii Bibliotheca, Cod. 234, 235. Some have 
said that Methodius's treatise on Free-will, was against Origen ; 
but it was against the Valentinians. 

Lardner thinks that Methodius was made bishop about a. d. 290, 
and martyred in the year 311, or 312. It is suspected that his 
malicious treatment of Origen, was the reason of Eusebius's re 
markable omission of his name in his Ecclesiastical History. 

6 - Huet. Origenian. Lib. ii. cap. 4, sect. i. § 2, inter Origenis 
Opera, Edit. Delarue ; cum Not. in loco. 



140 



THE ANCIENT HISTORY 



While this was transacting in the East, Origen's 
writings appear to have found a professed admirer in 
the West : Victorinus, who was probably a Greek by 
birth and education, but now bishop of Petabium on 
the Danube in Western Germany, is said to have imi- 
tated him in his Commentaries, though he disagreed 
with him in some of his views, particularly on the 
Millennium. 7 

III. In the numerous and influential churches of 
Alexandria, we discover that the troubles which arose 
on his expulsion, seventy or eighty years before, had 
not yet subsided. Among his adversaries, now, was 
Peter, the bishop ; the first, probably, of that class, 
who had presided there, since the time of Demetrius. 
About this time, or a little after, Peter publicly op- 
posed the notion of pre-existence, though incidentally, 
perhaps, and without ascribing it to Origen. But he 
certainly betrayed his prejudice by unjustly stigmatiz- 
ing him as a schismatic, merely for having disobeyed 
his passionate and domineering bishop, 8 There is 
reason to suspect that the dissensions at Alexandria, 
never ceased till they at length produced, as we shall 
hereafter see, two avowed parties, both in the ortho- 
dox churches there, and in the monasteries of the 
Egyptian deserts. 

IV. As we are now arrived, however, at the age of 
two eminent fathers of the Western church, who ex- 
plicitly stated their opinions of future torments, we 

7 - Hieronymi Epist. xxxvi. ad Vigilant, p. 276, Edit. Martianay. 
And Cave, Hist. Literaria, Art. Victorinus Petavionensis. 8 - Pe- 
trus Alexandrinus apud Justiniani Epist. ad Menam, quoted by 
Du Pin, Biblioth. Pat. Art. Peter of Alexandria I. Yet Eusebius 
mentions Peter with praise. 



OF UNIVERSALISM. 



141 



shall here avail ourselves of their representations. 
Arnobius of Sicca, about seventy or eighty miles 
southwest of Carthage in Africa, wrote his large work 
Against the Heathens, probably about A. D. 305 ; in 
which he asserted that the wicked will, hereafter, " be 
" thrown into torrents of fire, amidst dark caverns and 
" whirlpools, where they shall at length be annihilated 
" and vanish in perpetual extinction, " while the right- 
eous on the other hand, shall reign in life eternal ; 
" for, " says he, " souls are of such a middle nature 
" that they can be exterminated when they have not 
" the knowledge of the God of life, and can also be 
" preserved from destruction by taking heed to his 
" threatenings and his mercies. " 9 So thought Arno- 
bius. But his own scholar, the celebrated Lactantius, 
who, after going to Asia Minor, wrote his Institutes, 
perhaps about A. D. 306, 10 asserted the endless misery, 
instead of the annihilation, of unbelievers. Having 
mentioned certain events to precede the end of the 
world, he says, " After these things the secret place 
"of the dead shall be laid open, and they shall rise. 
" And on them the great Judgement shall set, con- 
" ducted by that King and God, to whom the supreme 
"Father shall give full power both to judge and to 
" reign . . . , Nevertheless, not the whole Universe, 
" but only such as have professed the divine religion, 

9 - Arnobius Adversus Gentes, Lib. ii. pp. 52, 53, Edit. Lugduni 
Bat. 1651. It has been said that this work was written soon after 
his conversion, while he was only a Catechumen ; but Lardner 
shows, satisfactorily I think, from the book itself, that the author 
must have been in full communion. See Lardner's Credibility 
&c. chap. Arnobius. 10 - Cave and Lardner place this work at a. 
d . 306; and the latter assigns his reasons against the former critics, 
who had, for the most part, brought it down to about a. u. 321. 



142 



THE ANCIENT HISTORY 



" shall then he judged. For since those who never 
" confessed God, cannot possibly be absolved, they 
u have been already judged and condemned : as the 
" holy Scriptures testify, that the impious are not to 
c f rise in the judgement. (Ps. i. 5.) Accordingly those 
Ci only will be judged who believed in God ; and their 
" deeds shall be weighed, the evil against the good, 
" that if their righteous works are more in number and 
" weight, they may be admitted to happiness ; but if 
" their wicked acts exceed, they may be condemned 
u to punishment. " n He proceeds, afterwards, to de- 
scribe more particularly the future conditions of these 
several classes : the impious who have never acknow- 
ledged the true God, shall be consigned to endless 
torment, in devouring yet unconsuming flame ; but the 
professors, whose sins exceed their righteousness, shall 
be more slightly touched and scorched by the fire ; 
while they who are fully matured in holiness, shall 
pass through it without any sensation of pain. 12 

Neither the sentiment of Arnobius, nor that of Lac- 
tantius, on this subject, though different from each 
other, appears to have occasioned any complaint or 
dissatisfaction. Both of these authors acquired con- 
siderable fame. The latter was the most elegant and 
classical writer of all the Latin fathers ; and the fond 
partiality of his admirers, has ventured to compare his 
style, for excellence, with that of Cicero. 

V. Resuming the history of Origen's doctrine, we 
discover that, in addition to the particulars on which 
Methodius had inveighed against him, he began now 



u - Lactantii Institut. Lib. vii. cap. 20. 12 - Ditto. Lib. vii. cap, 
SI. Du Pin has not exactly stated Lactantius's meaning, here. 



OF UNIVERSALISM, 



143 



to be accused of error concerning the Trinity and 
Incarnation. To the former of these points the pub- 
lic attention had been awakened, more than half a 
century before, by Origen's own controversy with 
Beryllus ; and afterwards, by those that the church 
carried on against Noetus, Sabellius and Paul of 
Samosata. And if, as is thought, Lucian, a learned 
presbyter of Antioch, had still more lately advanced 
notions contrary to trinitarianism, the circumstance 
would naturally add fresh excitement to feelings 
already on the alarm. The jealousy, thus roused 
and cherished, was now scrutinizing every form of 
expression in order to detect heresy on this subject ; 
though the self-constituted censors were by no means 
clear nor unanimous as to the precise point they 
themselves would regard as truth. Many began to 
discover, in the writings of the venerated Origen, 
expressions inconsistent with their favorite tenet ; and 
consequently the enmity against him, which had hith- 
erto been confined to a few individuals, instantly 
spread to a considerable extent. Some became satis- 
fied, perhaps from candid examination, that if he 
were not really heretical, he had given too much 
occasion to error ; but others, having gathered up 
some of his more adventurous speculations concern- 
ing the Godhead, broke out into clamor, and pro- 
nounced him, at once, a heretic. And there were 
others again, unable to read the Greek, who took up 
against him on mere report ; of which, as usual in 
such cases, the loud tone of hatred and abuse, was 
much sooner heard, than the still, small voice of truth 
and commendation. They accused him of various 



144 



THE ANCIENT HISTORY 



and opposite errors ; but so manifest was the false- 
hood of most of their charges, that nothing: could 
more conclusively demonstrate the unreasonable mo- 
tives of the attack. So high did the indignation rise, 
that even those who only read his writings or cher- 
ished his reputation, were severely censured. 13 

This angry commotion, though we cannot now 
ascertain its authors, was then regarded as sufficiently 
formidable to require a public defence of Origen ; 
and two distinguished admirers of his writings, who 
held offices in the church where he himself had flour- 
ished sixty or seventy years before, undertook the 
work. Pamphilus, a learned presbyter of Cesarea in 
Palestine, and Eusebius, his fellow presbyter, the 

renowned father of ecclesiastical history, 
a. d. 307, wrote a large and labored Apology for 
to 310. Origen; in part of which they stated, 

and thoroughly canvassed, the accusa- 
tions brought against his doctrine. Happily for us, 
this part, which was the first book of the work, is still 
extant, in the Latin translation of Rufinus. The 
authors formally arrange the charges of his enemies 
against him, in the following order: "1. They [his 
" accusers] say he asserted that the Son of God is 
" unbegotten ; 2. they accuse him of teaching, like 
" the ValentinianSj that the Son of Gcd came into 
" existence by emanation ; 3. they charge him, con- 
" trary to the former accusations, of holding with 
" Artemas and Paul of Samosata, that Christ, the 
" Son of God, was a mere man, and not God; 4. 

13> Pamphili Praefat. ad Apolog. pro Orogene, compared with 
Apolog. cap. v. &c. inter Origenis Opera, Edit; Delarue, Tom. iv 



OF UNIVERSALIS*!. 



145 



" next, they contradict all these charges by saying 
" (so blind is malice,) that he taught that it was only 
"in appearance the Saviour performed the deeds 
" ascribed to him, and that the history of him is but 
" an allegory, not a reality ; 5. another charge they 
" bring, is, that he taught there were two Christs ; 6. 
" they add that he wholly denied the literal accounts 
" which the Scriptures give of the lives of the saints ; 
" 7. they calumniously attack him on the resurrec- 
tion of the dead, and the punishment of the impi- 
" ous ; accusing him of denying that torments are to 
"be inflicted on sinners; 8. they censure some of his 
" arguments or opinions concerning the soul, [i. e. its 
" pre-existence ;] 9. the last charge of all, which is 
" circulated in every shape of infamy, is, that he 
" asserted that human souls will, after death, be 
" changed into dumb animals, either reptiles or quad- 
" rupeds ; and also that brutes have rational souls : 
"which charge we have placed last, that we may 
"collect the more testimonies from his books, to 
" render the falsehood of it the plainer. Now," con- 
tinue they, " observing the order of the charges 
" above stated, we will begin with the first." 14 They 
accordingly proceed with them in course ; and, by 
adducing copious extracts from Origen's own writings, 
successfully defend him from each of the accusations, 
except the eighth, which relates to the pre-existence 
of human souls. This, they admit, was truly his 
sentiment ; but they excuse it, as being probably 
correct, or at least of no consequence even if erro- 
neous* 

14 - Apolog. pro Origene, cap. v. 

13 



146 



THE ANCIENT HISTORY 



VI. We cannot discover, in all this affair, that his 
doctrine of Universal Salvation was regarded as cen- 
surable ; and an incidental circumstance shows that 
his learned Apologists neither knew that he had ever 
been reproached for that tenet, nor suspected that it 
could occasion any odium whatever. For, when they 
come to defend him against the latter item in the 
seventh charge, that is, against the charge of having 
denied all future punishment, they select, among sev- 
eral other testimonies from his works, two distinct 
paragraphs, in which he had, as usual, spoken of 
torments to be hereafter inflicted by fire ; but in 
which he, at the same time, represented them as 
altogether remedial: "we are to understand," said 
he, "that God, our physician, in order to remove 
" those disorders which our souls contract from vari- 
" ous sins and abominations, uses that painful mode 
"of cure, and brings those torments of fire upon such 
" as have lost the health of the soul, just as an 
" earthly physician, in extreme cases, subjects his 
"patients to cautery. 55 "'And Isaiah teaches that 
" the punishment said to be inflicted by fire, is very 
" needful ; saying of Israel, the Lord shall wash away 
" the filth of the sons and daughters of Zion, and 
"purge the blood from their midst, by the spirit of 
" judgement, and the spirit of burning. (Isa. iv. 
"4.)" &c. 15 

This testimony from Origen, like a thousand other 
passages which might have been selected from his 
writings, was> indeed, an effectual refutation of the 
particular charge brought against him ; but it was, at 

15 * Apol. pro Origene, cap. viii. 



OF UNIVER8ALISM. 



147 



the same time, a proof that he regarded future pun- 
ishment as purifying and salutary. Had this senti- 
ment been obnoxious at that day, Pamphilus and 
Eusebius would rather have avoided such passages, 
than have obtruded them, thus unnecessarily, upon 
the attention of his captious enemies ; lest, in defend- 
ing him from an accusation so easily refuted, they 
should bring upon him one that could never be 
removed. And we may add, that their introducing 
such passages, without remark, while maintaining that 
Origen was sound in the faith, gives, at least, some 
color of probability to the charge, which was nearly 
a century afterwards brought 16 against them, of hold- 
ing with him the doctrine of Universal Restitution, as 
well as that of Pre-existence. Of Pamphilus there 
is nothing else extant ; so that, in his case, this 
appearance can neither be confirmed nor removed. 
And it would probably be difficult, if not impossible, 
to determine, from the numerous works which Euse- 
bius afterwards published, what was his opinion on 
this subject. 17 Both, however, were ardent admirers 
of Origen's writings ; a large part of which, the 
former bad laboriously transcribed, with his own 
hand, for a famous ecclesiastical library, which he 
established at Cesarea. The two friends had likewise 
published corrected copies of the Septuagint, taken 

16 « By Jerome, Lib. ii. Adversus Rufinum, p. 407. Tom. iv. 
Part. ii. Edit. Martianay ; and afterwards by an anonymous writer 
of the sixth century, published by R. P. Lupo. See Delarue's 
Admonitio in Apolog. S. Pamphili pro Origene. Botli of these 
authors, however, seem to have grossly misrepresented, at least, 
the circumstances of the case. 17 - I have not access to all the 
works of Eusebius ; but judge this statement correct, from the 
general character of his writings, and from the silence of all the 
ancient fathers and modern critics. 



148 



THE ANCIENT HISTORY 



from the Hexapla. We may add, that Eusebius has 
been accused of holding Origen's peculiar notion, that 
human bodies, at the resurrection, will be of an aerial 
substance. 18 

VII. Pamphilus was thrown into prison at Cesa- 
rea, in the year 307, by the heathen persecutors ; and 
Eusebius either underwent the same sentence, or vol- 
untarily shared his confinement. It was here, that 
the two friends began the Apology. When they had 
proceeded to the end of the fifth book, Pamphilus 
was led forth from prison to martyrdom. This was in 
the year 309. Eusebius then added the sixth, or 
last, book to the common work, and dedicated the 
whole to those Christians who were condemned to 
labor, as slaves, in the mines of Palestine. 19 

Eusebius survived to witness the most eventful and 
momentous change which the church has ever experi- 
enced. He was elevated to the bishopric of Cesarea, 
about A. D, 313, when Christianity first received a 
full and effectual toleration ; and, in succeeding years, 
he beheld it continually rising in the favor of Con- 

stantine, till it was, at length, declared 
a. d, 324. the established religion of the empire. 

Amidst the scenes of security and world- 
ly splendor, which now succeeded the long and tem- 
pestuous reign of persecution, the bisbop of Cesarea, 
high in the imperial favor, often looked back, in 
tender remembrance, to his early associate and mar- 
tyred friend ; and as a testimonial of an affection 
which neither time nor honors could extinguish, he 

18 - Photii Epist. 144. 19 - Delarue Admonit. in Apolog. pro 
Origene. 



OF UNIVERSALlSM. 



149 



wrote his life, and took upon himself the surname of 
Pamphilus. That his admiration also of Origen did 
not diminish with increasing years, we find ample 
proof in his Ecclesiastical History, and in his suc- 
ceeding works. He was by far the most learned 
bishop of his time ; and, what is greater praise, he 
was moderate and unaspiring, in an age of clerical 
violence and ambition. Though the favorite of Con- 
stantine, he never abused his influence either for per- 
sonal or party purposes ; and when the great bishopric 
of Antioch was offered him, on the deposition of 
Eustathius, he declined exchanging his own diocess 
of Cesarea, for that of all the East, the third for 
dignity in Christendom. 

The latter part of his life was disturbed by the 
unholy and cruel contest which began to rage between 
the Arians and Trinitarians ; in which he often con- 
curred in the measures of the former, though he did 
not approve their doctrine. They were, in his time, 
the injured party. Whether his views on the con- 
tested question itself, were fully orthodox, is disputed ; 
and it is certain that in the famous council of Nice, 
he not only urged the petulant bishops to adopt such 
a Declaration of Faith as both parties could receive, 
but that he also refused to subscribe their Creed, 
except with an interpretation of his own. 20 

VIII. The Arian controversy, to which we have 
just alluded, began, at Alexandria, about A. D. 317, 
bringing a dark cloud over the church, in the very 
morning of her political establishment. It spread, 

20 - Jortin (Remarks on Eccl. Hist. Vol. iii.) treats largely and 
impartially of Eusebius's character. 

13* 



150 



THE ANCIENT HISTORY 



instantly, like a conflagration, over all Egypt, and 
soon involved Europe and Asia. The great and 
imposing synod of all Christendom, which assembled, 
A. D. 325, at Nice, in Asia Minor, was called 
together, by the Emperor, with the vain hope of 
determining this dispute : but, though it managed to 
decide against Arius, by an almost unanimous decree, 
that the Son was Consubstantial with the Father, 
it resulted only in dignifying the contention, and en- 
raging the temper of the partisans. These separated 
into three divisions : the ConsiibstantiaJists , or patrons 
of the Nicene Creed ; the Semi- Avians, a sort of im- 
perfect trinitarians ; and the Avians, who held that 
Christ was a created being. A most disgraceful scene 
followed, till toward the close of this century. Coun- 
cil against council assembled, and deliberately opposed 
falsehood to falsehood, and fraud to fraud ; deposition 
and excommunication were decreed, as either party 
gained a momentary ascendancy in the church ; the 
imperial authority obsequiously enforced the mad 
decrees alternately of each sect, till it filled the deserts 
of Egypt, and the remote regions of the empire with 
exiled bishops ; and the furious rabble, on both sides, 
resorted at length, to riots and massacres, to gratify 
their revenge, or to exercise their malicious zeal. 
The heathens, from whom the power of persecution 
had been so lately wrested, might have consoled them- 
selves, in prospect of its being more effectually exerted 
in the self-destroying hands of a divided and factious 
national church. 



OF UNIVERSALIS*!. 



151 



Into this scene of contention we must 
a. d. 320, now follow the history of Origen's doc- 
to 360. trine. It does not, indeed, appear to 
have been, at first, so deeply implicated 
as some writers represent. The virulent attacks from 
which Pamphilus and Eusebius had defended him, 
seem to have subsided ; and all the concern that his 
name, or his writings, had with the grand controversy, 
till some time past the middle of this century, may be 
described in a few words. As his great authority 
would give considerable advantage to any cause in 
which it was exerted, the several parties gladly avail- 
ed themselves of it, whenever it could be brought to 
operate in their favor ; but on the contrary, when it 
seemed to oppose their views, they would naturally 
endeavor to depreciate it. The Arians, however, do 
not appear to have been very confident of securing 
the patronage of his name, though some of them 
claimed him for their own. But of the two other 
parties, the Semi-Arians were generally his professed 
admirers ; and the Consubstantialists, also, appealed to 
his testimony, as full and explicit upon their own side. 
So far as we know, only one of them, Marcellus, 
bishop of Ancyra in Galatia, incidentally impeached 
the soundness of his faith concerning the trinity. 21 
This was about A. D. 330. But he was an author 
whose complaint could have little weight, as it was 
suspected that his zeal against the damnable heresy of 
Arius, had precipitated him, on the other hand, into 
the perdition of Sabellianism. We must, here, digress 

21 - Eusebii Contra Marcell. Lib. i. See Du Pin's Biblioth. Patr. 
Art. Eusebius Pamphilus 



152 



THE ANCIENT HISTORY 



so far as to mention that Marcellus seems also to have 
held the doctrine of universal salvation, as at least to 
have used its language. 22 To return, however, to the 
Arian controversy : The guardian genius of the Ni- 
cene faith, the great and intrepid Athanasius, always 
quoted Origen as orthodox ; Hilary of Poictiers in 
France, the ablest and most active defender of the 
same faith, in the West, became an imitator of his 
writings ; and so did Eusebius Vercellensis, 23 another 
Athanasian bishop of distinction, who presided over 
the churches scattered round the sources of the mod- 
ern Po, in Italy. This example of their leaders was 
followed by most of the party. Some years after- 
wards, or about A. D. 370, when Basil the Great, 
Didymus, and the two Gregories Nazianzen and Nys- 
sen, stood at the head of the Consubstantialists in the 
East, we find them among Origen's warmest admirers, 
defending him from the occasional claims of the Arians. 
This sketch, though brief, is a pretty full account of 
the treatment his name experienced in the Arian dis- 
pute, till A. D, 360, and indeed till several years later. 

IX. On certain other subjects, however, not imme- 
diately connected with the main controversy, he was 
once attacked, during this period, with a very angry 
spirit, by Eustathius, an eminent orthodox bishop of 
the East. This prelate had been translated from the 
bishopric of Beroea, the modern Aleppo, to the great 
see of Antioch, about the time of the Nicene council ; 

22 - Neander Allgem. Geschichte der Christl. Ral. und Kirche, 
Band ii. s. 609. He quotes Eusebius contra Marcell. Lib. ii. cap. 
2 and 4 ; which I have not seen. 

23. Hieronymi Epist. lxxiv. ad Augustin. Tom. iv. Part. ii. p. 
627 ; and Epist. xxxvi. ad Vigilant, p. 276. 



OF UN1VERSALISM. 



153 



but in A. D. 330, he was deposed by an Arian fac- 
tion, and, as we have observed, his archbishopric was 
offered, though in vain, to Eusebius Pamphilus, who 
had concurred with his adversaries. Whether it was 
after this deposition, that Eustathius made his attack 
upon Origen, cannot be determined ; nor whether it 
was his motive to mortify his hated rival of Cesarea, 
by bringing a general odium on the favorite father, 
whom that learned historian had so highly extolled. 
But he published, at what time is unknown, 24 a trea- 
tise against Origen, in which he assailed him with 
much asperity, and foolishly charged him with lying 
against the Scriptures, and with endeavoring to intro- 
duce idolatry and magic into the church. The pro- 
fessed object of his book was, like that of the Pytho- 
ness of Methodius, to prove that it was not the soul of 
the prophet Samuel, that the Witch of Endor raised, 
as Origen had somewhere asserted, but only a phan- 
tom, produced by the imposture of the devil. He 
frequently takes occasion, however, to rail against sev- 
eral other notions of Origen, particularly against his 
views of the resurrection, and his extravagant alle- 
gories. Of the latter he recites and misrepresents 
numerous instances, with the manifest design to ex- 
pose his doctrine in the worst possible light ; but in 
all this learned bishop's reproaches, which fell even 
upon Origen's style of writing, Universalism, it seems, 
escaped with impunity. 25 And what is equally re- 

24 - There is much uncertainty in the history of Eustathius. 
Some think he died about a. d. 337 ; others, that he lived till 
about a. d. 360. See Cave, Hist. Literaria, and Du Pin's Biblio- 
theca Patr. Art. Eustathius. 

2o - Eustath. de Engrastrimytho, adverses Origenem. I have not 



154 



THE ANCIENT HISTORY 



markable, this was likewise the case amidst all the 
clamor of the Arian controversy, so far as we have 
just surveyed it. 

The next attack upon him was that of Apollinarius 
the Younger, a learned bishop and distinguished writer 
of Laodicea in Phrygia,who was afterwards condemn- 
ed for Sabellianism. He is said to have written against 
Origen, not far, probably, from A. D. 360 ; but on 
what points is unknown, except that it was not on the 
doctrine of the trinity. 26 This completes 27 the account 
of censures on his sentiments, till we arrive at the year 
376, when the attack of Epiphanius will come under 
our notice. 

X. Such was the general character of the proceed- 
ings relative to Origen and his sentiments, and such 
the peculiar circumstances and facts we have narrated, 
as to show, satisfactorily, that the doctrine of Universal 
Restoration was regarded, in the church, as neither 
heretical nor even unpopular ; and that the standard 
of orthodoxy, so far as it concerned that particular 

been able to find this book, and have therefore drawn my account 
from the notices of it scattered through Huetii Origeniana, and 
from Du Pin's abstract, Biblioth. Patr. Art. Eustathius. 

26> Theophili Alexaudrini Paschal. Lib. i. inter Hieronymi 
Opera, Tom. iv. p. 694, Edit. Martianay. And Socratis Hist. Eccl. 
Lib. vi. cap. 13. 27 - Cave mistakes when he says, in his Life of 
Origen, § 29, (Lives of the Fathers) that Athanasius indirectly 
condemned his notion of the end of hell-torments ; for the piece 
to which he refers (Testimonia ex Sac. Script, de Nat. Commun. 
simil. Essent. inter Pat. et Fil. et Spirit. Sanct.) is not Athanasi- 
us's, but a much later author's. See Cave, Hist. Literaria, and 
Du Pin's Biblioth. Pat. Art. Athanasius, and the Benedictine 
Editors' Preface to that piece in Athanasii Opera, Tom. ii. p. 3. 

If Huet (Origeniana, Lib. ii. cap. 4, Sect. i. § 5,) alluded, as I 
think he did, to Vita? Sancti Antonii cap. 75, for Athanasins's co- 
vert censure of Origen's notion of the lapse of souls, he also mis- 
took ; for the passage regards only the notions of heathens on that 
point, not Origen's. 



OF UNIVERSALISM. 



155 



point, was then supposed to require only a belief in 
future punishment. Still, we must not thence con- 
clude that the fathers of this age were, in general, de- 
cided Universalists. Many of them had, probably, no 
definite opinion at all upon a subject which had never 
undergone the ordeal of controversy ; and several 
would seem to have believed in endless misery. This 
will be sufficiently apparent, if we select some of the 
strongest expressions which the more distinguished of 
them used respecting the fate of the damned. Every 

body knows that the first, in influence, 
a. d. 347, among the orthodox at this time, was 
to 370. Athanasius : " Repent, " says he, " lest 

" at any time your soul should be snatch- 
ei ed away by death ; for none can deliver those who, 
u on account of their sins, are confined in hell. 
Yet the same author held that Christ descended to 
hell, or the place of the dead, after his crucifixion, and 
released the saints of the old dispensation, and likewise 
the souls of such Gentiles as had, before his coming, 
lived virtuously according to the light of nature. 29 
This, too, was the opinion of Cyrill, 30 bishop of Jeru- 
salem ; whom we might also pronounce a believer in 
endless misery, if his frequent application of the word 
everlasting to punishment, were proof. At the future 
coming of Christ to the general Judgement, then just 
at hand, and which is described, he thinks, in the last 
chapter of Daniel, and in the twenty fourth and twenty 
fifth of St. Matthew, the just were to be admitted to 

28 - Athanasii Exposit. in Psalm, xlix, Tom. i. p. 1086. Edit. Paris. 
1698. 2 9- Du Pin's Biblioth. Pat. Art. Athanasius. 30 - Cyrilli 
Hierosolymit. Catechesis iv. cap. 8 ; and Catechesis Mystagogica v. 



156 



THE ANCIENT HISTORY 



eternal life, and the wicked consigned to everlasting 
fire. 31 We may venture, nevertheless, to assert that 
neither of those two bishops regarded Universalism 
with any antipathy. Ephraim the Syrian, a gloomy, 
rigid, and somewhat fanatical monk of Mesopotamia, 
but still a very eminent writer, asserted that " there is 
" no confession in hell ; no tears, no groans, can there 
" avert the sentence of the Judge. There will, no 
" longer, be any time to repent. There is no return 
" after death ; but every thing terrible and severe falls 
" on those who have lost the opportunity for repen- 
" tance. ; ' 3 ' 2 In the western church, the celebrated 
Hilary, bishop of Poictiers. taught, with a slight varia- 
tion from what Lactantius had advanced, that in the 
general judgement, neither the pious nor the infidels 
are to be arraigned ; because Christ had said. He that 
believelh on me shall not be judged, and. He that be- 
lieveth not. is condemned already. The judgement, 
accordingly, shall be for those only who hold a middle 
grade between these two characters. 33 And such, he 
probably held, would be saved, after suffering the ar- 
rears due them from justice ; while the case of the 
obstinate infidels would be utterly hopeless. But still 
it was his opinion that all mankind, even the very ho- 
liest, must pass through the intense and painful fire of 
the general conflagration : the Virgin Mary herself 
cannot be exempted from this terrible purification ; for 
Simeon had forewarned her. that a sword should 
pierce her own soul also. (Luke ii. 35. ) 34 As Hilary 

3L Catechpsis, xv. 32 - Ephraem Svri Lib. De Extreme* Judicio 
cap. 4. 33 - Hilarii Enarratio in Psalm, i. 34 - Enarratio in Psalm, 
cxviii. liter, Gimel. 



OF UNIVERSALISM. 



157 



had been an exile in Phrygia, he may have obtained 
some of these notions among the eastern Christians ; 
and perhaps from Origen's works in particular, which 
he certainly admired and imitated. 

XI. Another writer among the ortho- 
a. d. 350, dox of the West, Fabius Marius Vie- 
to 370. torinus, uses language which seems to 
express the ultimate purification and ho- 
liness of all intelligent natures ; yet, as he introduces 
it but incidentally, and in a very blind illustration of 
the divinity of Christ, we ought not, perhaps, to rely 
on it as absolute proof of his views on the former 
point. We despair of giving any intelligible transla- 
tion of his argument, in its relation to the trinity. In 
it, however, he contends that Christ, or the Logos, 
who is the active power of God, created all things, 
and will regenerate all things. By the life that is in 
him, and which is universally diffused, all things will 
be purged, and return into eternal life. He is to sub- 
ject all things to himself, whether men, or princi- 
palities, or powers, in order that God may become all 
in all. When this shall have been accomplished, God 
will be all things ; because all things will be full of 
God. All things, adds he, will still exist ; but God 
will exist in them. 35 Such is the tenor of his repre- 
sentations on this subject. It is worthy of remark 
that, in a poem, he applies the epithet ceiernus, or 
everlasting, to the fire of future punishment. 36 

35 - F. Marii Victorini Afri Adv. Arium, Lib. i. et iii. I find 
the work in a collection of tracts of the ancient fathers, entitled 
Antidotum contra diversas omnium fere Saculorum Ha>reses. 
Basil 1528. see pp. 52, 63, 64. ™- Ut Supra, De Machabcois, p. 
81 , &c. 

14 



158 



THE ANCIENT HISTORY 



Victorinus was an African by birth, but became a 
distinguished pagan rhetorician at Rome, where he 
was so much admired, that a statue was erected to 
him in one of the public places of the city. After he 
had taught, there, many years, and had grown old, he 
was converted to Christianity, about A, D. 350. He 
wrote several works, chiefly in defence of trinitarian- 
ism, and against the Manicheans ; and died about the 
year 370. 37 

XII. There were, at this time, some 
a. d. 360, decided Universalists among the ortho- 
to 370. dox bishops and writers, especially of the 
East. About forty miles east of the river 
Jordan, beyond the hilly tract of the ancient Perea, 
the traveller descends upon a spacious, barren plain, 
where vestiges of forgotten towns appear, here and 
there, and a few sunken reservoirs still supply the 
wandering hordes, and the regular caravans, with 
water preserved from the winter torrents. Traversing 
this neglected waste to the distance of a dozen or fif- 
teen miles still eastward, he arrives at the ruins of an 
ancient city, near the borders of the Desert Arabia, 
Fragments of the old walls, remains of a splendid 
temple, of triumphal arches, of a church and monas- 
tery, and of a great mosque, together with numberless 
pillars broken and lying among rose-trees in bloom, 
indicate the site of the ancient Bostra. 38 In the fourth 
century it was a populous city, the capital of a small 
province to which the vanity of the Roman conquer- 

37 - For the account of his life, see Du Pin's Bib. Pat. Art. Vic- 
torinus of Africk. Murdock's Mosheim, vol. i. p. 309. 38 - D'An- 
ville's Ancient Geography, vol. i. p. 425 ; and Burckhardt'3 
Travels in Syria and the Holy Land, pp. 226—236. London 1822. 



OF UNIVERSAUSM, 



159 



ors had arrogantly appropriated the name of Arabia. 
At the period of which we write, Titus, a bishop 
of considerable eminence, presided here, over the 
churches in this district, and numbered, among his 
own Christian flock, half of the inhabitants of the city. 
Though he appears to have published several works, 
none remains, except part of his books Against the 
Manicheans, written, it is thought, about A. D. 364. 
He says that the " abyss of hell is, indeed, the place 
" of torment ; but it is not eternal, nor did it exist in 
u the original constitution of nature. It was made 
" afterwards, as a remedy for sinners, that it might 
" cure them. And the punishments are holy, as they 
" are remedial and salutary in their effect on trans- 
u gressors ; for they are inflicted, not to preserve them 
" in their wickedness, but to make them cease from 
" their wickedness. The anguish of their suffering 
" compels them to break off their vices* " 39 His 
treatment of this point, after passing unreproached 
through all the contests of antiquity, has, in modern 
ages, attracted the notice of our ecclesiastical critics, 
and engaged them in the contrary attempts of expos- 
ing, and of exculpating, the author. 40 It is remarka- 
ble that he contended that death, as well as every 

39 - Titi Bostriensis Contra Manichaeos Lib. i. p. 85. N. B. This 
work is published only in Canisii Lector, and in the great Biblio- 
theca Patrum, to neither of which I have access. I therefore 
quote from Ceilleir's Histoire des Auteurs Sacres et Ecclesias- 
tiques, Tom. vi. chap. 6, p. 54. 

40 - Tillemont, though a most strenuous defender of the fathers, 
is candid enough to acknowledge (Memoires Eccl. Tom. vi. p. 
671,) that " Titus seems to have followed the dangerous error as- 
u cribed to Origen, that the pains of the damned, and even those 
" of the demons themselves, will not be eternal. " But Ceilleir 
Jias the hardihood to plead that the passage is not clear, &c. 



160 THE ANCIENT HISTORY 

other dispensation of providence, was designed for the 
benefit both of the just, and of the unjust ; 41 and that 
he maintained, against the Manicheans, that, even in 
this world, mankind are happy or miserable, according 
to their virtue or vice. With the doctrine of original 
sin, he seems to have been utterly unacquainted ; and 
he supposed that human agency was fully adequate, 
without any supernatural control, to do good as well 
as evil. 42 

Of the events of his life, we know little more than 
that, like most of the distinguished orthodox bishops of 
this time, he was honored with the notice and the per- 
secution of the emperor Julian. In the year 362, 
this zealous apostate endeavored to excite the people 
of Bostra to expel their bishop ; but the influence of 
the prelate seems to have prevailed over the exhorta- 
tion of the sovereign, and the malicious attempt proved 
ineffectual. On the accession of Jovian to the empire, 
A. D. 363, Titus attended the council of Antioch 
under Meletius ; and, though his name appears, with 
those of some other orthodox bishops, among the sub- 
scriptions to a Semi-Arian explanation of the Nicene 
Creed, 43 he nevertheless seems to have been consider- 
ed one of the Athanasian party. He died, it is thought, 
about A. D. 370. 

XIII. More learned and classical than 
a. r>. 370. Athanasius, and next to him in weight of 
authority among the orthodox of the East , 
was Basil the Great, bishop of Cesarea in Cappadocia. 

41 - Contra Manich. Lib. ii. p. 107, 112. See the quotations in 
Ceilleir, p. 51. 4 ' 2 - Du Pin's Bibliotheca Pat. Art. Titus of Bostra. 
43 - Socratis Hist. Eccl. Lib. iii. cap. 21. 



OF UNIVERSALISM. 



161 



With a constitution naturally feeble, and broken more- 
over by monkish austerities, he possessed a strong mind, 
a courageous resolution, a temper active, but too ambi- 
tious, and an eloquence of a manly and noble kind. 
Of his views respecting the doctrine under considera- 
tion, we cannot pronounce with confidence, as his lan- 
guage is not uniform, nor always reconcileable. He 
repeatedly states, at considerable length, that those 
who, after baptism, indulge in sins, however heinous, 
and die under the guilt of them, are to be purified in the 
fire of the general judgement ; 44 distinguishing them, 
however, from such as have never professed Christi- 
anity. Yet, at another time, while admonishing one 
of those very characters, he conceals that notion, and 
for the sake, perhaps, of striking the greater terror, 
asserts that their future torments " will have no end, " 
and that "there is no release, no way to flee from 
" them, after death. Now is the time in which we 
" are allowed to escape them. " 45 On the contrary, 
again, he sometimes represents the purifying and salu- 
tary operation of future fire or punishment as extend- 
ing, without distinction, to guilty souls in general : 
Commenting on these words of Isaiah, (ix. 1 9, Sep- 
tuagint version) because of the wrath of the Lord, the 
whole earth is kindled into flame, and the people shall 
he as though they were burnt up with fi re, Basil says, 
" the prophet declares that, for the benefit of the soul, 
" the earthly things are to be consumed by penal fire ; 
" even as Christ himself intimates, saying, I have come 

44 - Basilii Comment, in Cap. iv. 4, Esaia?, and cap. xi. 16, &c. 
Edit. Paris. 1637. 45, Basilii Epist. ad Virginem lapsam, Tom.iii. 
p. 18. 

14* 



162 



THE ANCIENT HISTORY 



" to send fire upon the earth ; what would I, except 
<i that it be kindled ? " (Luke xii. 49.) And the 
prophet adds, " the people shall be as though they 
Ci were burnt up with fire : he does not threaten an 
Ci absolute extermination, but intimates a purification, 
u according to the sentiment of the apostle, that if 
Ci any one's work be burned, he shall suffer loss, but 
" he himself shall be saved, yet so as by fire. " (1 Cor. 
iii. 15.) 46 From this solitary passage we can only 
suspect that our author was, at times, inclined to Uni- 
versalism. 

His own brother, the bishop of Nyssa, was a Uni- 
versalist ; and his most intimate friend, Gregory Nazi- 
anzen, may in some degree merit that appellation. 
Like them, Basil was also a professed admirer of 
Origen's writing's ; and with the assistance of the 
latter, he selected from them and published a volume 
of choice extracts, consisting of such passages as the 
two friends most highly valued. It is a gratification 
to light on circumstances that seem to connect the 
writers of this age with earlier fathers, to whose 
acquaintance we have been introduced at a former 
period. Basil was brought up in the metropolis of 
Cappadocia, and perhaps in the very church where 
Firmilian presided, a century before. His grand- 
mother, Macrina, under whom he received his juve- 

46 - Basilii Comment, in Cap. ix. 19, Esaiae. If the Regular Bre- 
viores be Basil's, he there (Interrog. 267,) labored to reconcile the 
absolute eternity of punishment with the fact that some shall be 
beaten with many stripes, and others with few. But this piece 
has been ascribed to Eustathius of Sebastea, (See Du Pin's Biblio- 
theca Pat. Art. Basil,) a cotemporary with Basil. Whoever the 
author was, he certainly meant to be considered a believer in 
strictly endless misery. 



OF UNIVERSALISM, 



163 



nile education and his first impressions of piety, had 
been, in her youth, a hearer of Gregory Thaumatur- 
gus, in Pontus ; for whom she inspired her young 
scholar with a profound and lasting veneration. He 
himself, in middle life, spent some time, as a monk, in 
the solitudes adjacent to the ancient residence of the 
famous Wonderworker ; and soon afterwards, on his 
return to Cappadocia in the year 370, he was ordain- 
ed over the same bishopric which Firmilian had once 
governed. 

In his general system of doctrine, there was nothing 
that can have struck his cotemporaries as very pecu- 
liar. Though addicted to the allegorical mode of in- 
terpreting the Scriptures, he was quite moderate in this 
respect, compared with some others of that age. It is 
worthy of remark, that he approached nearer to the 
notion of original and total depravity, than had any of 
the earlier fathers ; though he still fell short of the 
modern standard, and was what we should now call 
an Arminian. 

In early life he travelled extensively, studying at 
Cesarea in Palestine, at Constantinople, at Athens, 
and finally in the monasteries of Egypt. Here he 
was initiated into the monastic life ; for which, like 
most of his cotemporaries, he always maintained a 
zealous attachment. Like them, too, he formed his 
views of practical religion, by the false standard of 
that perverse and fanatical discipline. 

XIV. That class of devotees, to which 
a. d. 370, we have once or twice alluded, the monks, 

to 376. had now become numerous in many parts 
of the East, where their unnatural mode 



164 



THE ANCIENT HISTORY 



life began to be held in general veneration, and to be 
patronised by nearly all the bishops and doctors. 
Athanasius, Basil, Ephraim the Syrian, the two Greg- 
ories, Epiphanius, and others, were its strenuous ad- 
vocates. It had been very lately introduced, with 
great success, into the desert parts of Palestine, Syria, 
Pontus, and Mespotamia ; but to Egypt belonged the 
glory, or more truly the dishonor, both of its origin, 
and of its rapid growth to maturity. A century be- 
fore the present period, one or two individuals fled 
from the heathen persecutions into the frightful wastes 
that border the long, narrow tract of vegetation water- 
ed by the Nile. Habit and a mistaken devotion gave 
them a relish, at length, for what necessity had thus 
forced upon them ; and they continued to follow, lrom 
choice, a kind of life more suited to the reptiles, their 
associates, than to human beings. Their example, so 
congenial with the absurd notions of the times, drew 
many after them. Multitudes succeeded multitudes ; 
till the number of monks, in that country alone, had 
now increased to tens of thousands, all governed by 
established rules, and forming an institution which was 
thought the brightest ornament of the church. 

Among them we discover that, about this time, a 
considerable body had become distinguished by an 
appellation which seems to have been but newly 
introduced ; that of Origenists. 41 These were, of 
course, certain followers of Origen. The name, 
however, of every indefinite application probably at 
first, did by no means extend to all his admirers, nor 

47 - Epiphanii Panarium, Haeres. lxiv. § 3. This is the earliest 
passage in which I have found that appellation. 



OF UNIVERSALIS]*!. 



165 



even to all his imitators ; for though the celebrated 
fathers, Gregory Nyssen, Didymus and Jerome, were 
known to be of the latter class, it does not appear 
that they were considered, till after many years, as 
belonging to the particular party under considera- 
tion. 48 What distinguished the Origenists properly 
so called, from other avowed disciples of their master, 
cannot be ascertained, perhaps it was some special 
combination among themselves for party purposes, or 
a more clamorous zeal in urging their designations. 
That they were, in some sense, a specific party, 
appears from the circumstance of their sectarian 
denomination ; but it should be remarked, that they 
were as yet in the full fellowship of the orthodox 
communion, and that they seem to have been scat- 
tered among the churches, as well as monasteries, in 
various parts of Egypt. 

There was one celebrated retreat, however, where 
they particularly abounded. About fifty miles south 
of Alexandria, beyond the lake Mareotis and a long 
extent of burning sands succeeded by plains heaped 
with pebbles, rose the bare and sun-burnt hills of 
Nitria, amidst a boundless prospect of desolation. 49 
It was in the borders of the great Lybian Desert, 
Around these hills the monks had gathered into a vast 
community, the most famous, perhaps, and with the 
exception of that at Oxyrinchus, the most numerous, 

48 - In proof of this, among many other facts, is that of Jerome's 
contention with some Origenists at Rome, about a. d. 382, and 
his forsaking Nitria, in a. d. 386, out of dislike to them ; though 
he himself was, at this time, a devout admirer of Origen's works. 

49 - Sonnini's Travels in Egypt, chap. 26 and 27. The desert 
of Nitria is about 35 miles west of Terane, a village on the 
Nile. 



166 



THE ANCIENT HISTORY 



of all they had yet formed. This was the principal seat 
of the Origenists. They appear to have constituted 
the smaller part of five or six thousand recluses. 50 
As strangers resorted hither, even from distant coun- 
tries, in order to acquire the monastic discipline and 
precepts in their perfection, many attached themselves 
to the new sect ; and travelling afterwards through 
different parts of Christendom, they propagated their 
views and partialities wherever they went, Few 
years later, we shall find some, though perhaps not 
all, of them to have been Universalists. 

XV. The Origenists, as a party, were 
a. d. 376. attacked by Epiphanius, bishop of Sala- 
mis on the island of Cyprus. He was 
a man of much reading, but very careless, inaccurate, 
and notoriously disposed to adopt every slanderous 
report against those whom he disliked. In a large 
work, designed to confute all the heresies that had 
ever appeared, he devotes one of the longest articles, 
of thirty or forty folio pages, to the errors of Origen 
Adamantius and his party. 51 Having given an ac- 
count of his life, in some points false and injurious, 
he says, "As to the heresy of Origen, it was first 
" propagated in Egypt ; and at this day it flourishes 
" chiefly among those who profess the monastic life. 
" It is a pestiferous heresy, exceeding in wickedness 
"all former ones, the errors of which it indeed era- 
" braces. For though it is attended with no appear- 

50 - For the number of monks at Nitria, see Fleury's Eccl. 
Hist. Book xvi. chap. 36. 5l - The Origeniani, whom Epipha- 
nius describes in Hacres. lxiii. are suspected to have been crea- 
tures of his imagination. See Lardner's Credibility, &c. chap. 
Noetus, and others called Heretics, <^c. 



OF UNIVERSALISM. 



167 



" ance of vice among its votaries, it teaches the 
"most absurd notion concerning God. From this 
" fountain it was, that Arius and his sectaries derived 
"their errors. Origen proceeded to such an extent 
" of temerity, as to assert that the only begotten Son 
" cannot behold the Father, nor the Holy Ghost see 
"the Son, nor angels the Holy Ghost, nor man the 
" An seels. This was his first error : For he held the 
" Son to be of the substance of the Father in such a 
"way as that he was nevertheless created. He held 
" still more heinous errors ; for he taught that the 
" souls of men existed before their bodies, and were 
" angels or superior powers, who have been consigned, 
"on account of their sins, to these mortal frames, for 
"the purpose of punishment. We could mention 
" ever so many of his notions : that, for instance, 
"which he entertained, that Adam lost the divine 
" image by transgression. Hence it is, says Origen, 
" that the Scripture mentions the coats of skins with 
" which God clothed our first parents : which coats 
" he takes to be their bodies. There are, indeed, an 
"infinite number of dogmas advanced by him, worthy 
" of ridicule and laughter. He even represented the 
" resurrection in an imperfect and defective manner, 
"partly asserting it in appearance, and partly deny- 
" ing it in reality. In other words, he supposed that 
"only a part of man is to be raised. And finally, he 
" turned whatever he could into allegories : such as 
" Eden or Paradise, and its waters ; and the waters 
" which are above the firmament, and those which are 
"under the earth," &c. 52 Epiphanius then proceeds 

52 - Epiphanii Panarium, Hseres. lxiv. § 4. This passage, which 



168 



THE ANCIENT HISTORY 



to treat, at considerable length, on his views of the 
trinity and the resurrection, inserting nearly all the 
treatise of Methodius on the latter subject : after 
which, he returns to inveigh once more against his 
notions of the coats of skins, of pre-existence, and 
of the resurrection, calling him " an infidel, and worse 
than an infidel." It is remarkable that, like all the 
former opposers of Origen, he too passes over the 
doctrine of Universalism in silence ; though we dis- 
cover that he, himself, at the same time, believed that 
there is no change of condition, nor room for repent- 
ance, after death, 53 This attack, though professedly 
against the Origenists, was directed more particularly 
against their master himself. It seems to have been 
the last he suffered, till the famous contest that arose 
at the end of this century, in which Epiphanius will 
again appear, as a principal actor. 

XVI. We have already advanced into 
a. d. 370, a period that forms a distinguished era in 
to 383. our history. Universalism appears to 
have been, for awhile, the sentiment of a 
majority of the most eminent orthodox fathers in the 
East. Gregory Nyssen, Didymus, Jerome and Dio- 
dorus of Tarsus, were its advocates ; and the cele- 
brated Gregory Nazianzen, who was elevated, at 
length, to the bishopric of Constantinople, hesitated 
between this doctrine and that of endless misery. 
His readiness in expounding the Nicene faith, acquired 
for him the appellation of The Theologian ; and of 

I have compressed a little, contains about every point that Epi- 
phanius censures throughout the whole article. This part of his 
work is supposed to have been written in a. d. 376. See Lard- 
ner's Credibility, &o. chap. Epiphanius. m - Ditto. Haeres. lix. 



OF UNIVERSAL! SM. 



169 



all the fathers, except Chrysostom, he is the most 
renowned for a brilliant and glowing eloquence. His 
works are, of course;, declamatory and exhortative, 
rather than doctrinal ; but he has still left sufficient 
proofs of the unsettled state of his opinion. Some- 
times he represented future misery as a dispensation 
of mere torment, opposed to all corrective suffering ; 
and asserted that in hell, or the place of the dead, 
there can be no confession nor reformation. 54 But, at 
other times, he thought it probable that those torments 
would be directed to the salvation of the sufferers ; 
"I have mentioned," says he, " the purifying fire 
"which Christ came to kindle upon earth; who is 
"himself figuratively called fire. It is the nature of 
"this fire to consume the grosser matter, or vicious 
" character, of the mind. But there is also another 
" sort of fire, not of purgation, but intended for a 
" vindictive punishment of wickedness : whether it be 
" that of Sodom, which, mixed with sulphur and 
" storm, God pours upon all sinners ; or that which is 
" prepared for the devil and his angels ; or even that 
" which proceeds before the face of the Lord ; or 
" lastly, that more formidable than all, which is con- 
" nected with the unsleeping worm, and is never extin- 
guished, but is continual and everlasting, for the 
" punishment of wicked men. It is the nature of all 
"these to ruin, to destroy ; unless, however, one may 
"suppose that the fire, in this case also, is to be 
"understood more moderately, and as is worthy, 
" indeed, of the God who punishes." 55 In another 

54 - Gregorii Nazianzeni Oratio Decimaquinta, p. 229, Tom. i. 
Edit. Paris. 1630. 5 *- Greg. Nazianz. Oratio xl. pp. 664, 665.. 
Tom. i. 

15 



170 



THE ANCIENT HISTORY 



passage, speaking of the Novatians, an heretical sect, 
he says, " perhaps they will be baptized, in the next 
"world, with fire, which is the last baptism, and is 
"not only keen, but of great duration, and which 
" shall feed on the dull matter, as on hay, till it shall 
" have consumed all their sins. 5 ' 56 Such is the inde- 
cision of Gregory upon this subject, that it is of little 
consequence to mention his repeated application of 
the word everlasting to future punishment. 

XVII. It has been said, by one of the best critics 57 
on ecclesiastical history, that of all the fathers of the 
fourth century, there was not a more moderate nor 
worthier man, than Gregory Nazianzen. Uniting a 
quick and deep sensibility with a lofty imagination, he 
was too contemplative, too fond of retirement, to 
engage willingly in the perpetual contentions of his 
age, or even to relish the tumults of a public life. 
He condemned the captiousness of the zealous bigots 
upon doctrinal points ; though one would suppose 
that he himself was, in this respect, fastidious enough. 
The clergy of that day, he boldly, and it appears 
justly, represented as a body of men avaricious, quar- 
relsome, licentious, and, in one word, unprincipled ; 
and of the frequent councils, which then disturbed 
the peace of the church, he declared that he was 
afraid of them, because he had never seen the end of 
one that was happy and pleasant, or that did not 
rather increase than diminish the evil. 58 Nothing can 
more strikingly evince the universal intolerance of 

hQ - Ditto, Oratio xxxix. p. G36, Tom. i. l7 - Le Clerc. See 
jortln's Remarks on Eccl. Hist. vol. iv. p. 95. London, 1773. 
Greg. Nazianz. Epist. Iv. 



OF UNIVERSALIS*!. 171 

the age, than that one of its most pacific men ap- 
proved, and sometimes urged, the persecution of her- 
etics, and openly lamented that the apostate emperor 
Julian had not been put to death by his predecessor. 

His intimacy with Basil the Great, began in early 
life, amidst the schools of Athens. Having already 
studied both in Palestine, and at Alexandria, Gregory 
repaired to this seat of Grecian literature about the 
year 344 ; and was, not long afterwards, joined by 
his young companion. Here they became acquainted 
with Julian, the future emperor, then a youth like 
themselves. Gregory at length returned home to 
Nazianzum, a small city in the south-western part of 
Cappadocia, of which his father was bishop. But 
when Basil, on his return from the monasteries of 
Egypt, retired to a solitude in Pontus, he followed 
him to that retreat, assisted him in establishing the 
monastic institutions there, and, as it seems, remained 
awhile after his friend had engaged in a more public 
and distinguished sphere. The latter was ordained 
bishop of Cappadocia, in A, D. 370 ; and wishing to 
pre-occupy, against the attempts of a rival, the small 
and obscure village of Sasima, on the confines of his 
jurisdiction, he recalled Gregory from his retirement, 
and appointed him bishop of the contested place. 
Gregory resented this heartless conduct in his friend ; 
and, refusing to accept the unworthy appointment, 
took up his residence again at Nazianzum, assisting 
his aged father in the care of the church. After the 
death of his venerable parent, he went to Seleucia, 
and thence, at the urgent request of the bishops, to 
Constantinople, where he arrived about A. D. 378. 



172 



THE ANCIENT HISTORY 



He found the city full of Arians, who occupied all 
the churches ; the orthodox few, dispirited, and desti- 
tute of a place for public worship. After preaching 
awhile in private houses, his eloquence and austere 
life drew into his flock a number sufficiently large to 
erect a spacious church, which they called The Ana- 
stasia, or Resurrection, to intimate the revival of the 
Consubstantial faith. The attention of the whole 
city was roused : the triumphant orthodox, the here- 
tics of all kinds, and even the heathens, crowded in 
a mingled mass to the Anastasia, to feast on his doc- 
trine, or to admire the enchantment of his eloquence ; 
and such was the pressure of the throng, as some- 
times to crush down the railing which enclosed the 
pulpit. 

In the midst of his success, however, he was deeply 
wounded by the ingratitude of an unprincipled but 
sanctimonious wretch, whom he had cherished. This 
impostor, named Maximus, formed a faction among 
the orthodox themselves, at Alexandria and other 
places, to usurp the bishopric of Constantinople ; 
came with his partisans, and forcibly entered Greg- 
ory's own church ; and, when driven out by the 
alarmed multitude, appealed, though in vain, to the 
emperor Theodosius. He finally succeeded, how- 
ever, in prevailing on the Italian bishops to counte- 
nance his project ; and he found too many among 
the eastern clergy, who, out of envy, favored his 
cause. Few men, perhaps, were less fitted than 
Gregory, to act amidst such circumstances. Though 
bold, vehement and resolute when surrounded by 
avowed enemies to his faith, opposition from his own 



OF UNIVERSALIS*!. 



173 



party withered his heart, and sickened him of life. 
He sought to retire from Constantinople to solitude. 
But the anxious entreaties of his people so far pre- 
vailed that he deferred his resolution ; and the new 
emperor Theodosius, making his first entry into Con- 
stantinople towards the end of the year 380, drove 
the Arians from all the churches in the city, banished 
their bishop, and introduced Gregory to the posses* 
sion, and to the revenues, of their great or cathedral 
church, 59 This new state of things seemed to afford 
him a space of quiet ; and in the General council 
which assembled the next year, at Constantinople, he 
was confirmed in his bishopric. Before the close of 
the session, however, or perhaps in another session 
held at the same place in A. D. 382, new difficulties 
broke out : Gregory's stern integrity gave offence to 
some, as it thwarted their intrigues ; and his popu- 
larity aroused the jealousy of others. Sinking under 
premature old age, wearied with contention, and dis- 
gusted with the vices of the bishops, he resolved, 
notwithstanding the bitter lamentations of his friends, 
to resign a post that continually exposed him to the 
abuse of clerical envy and ambition. In the great 
church of Constantinople, so lately wrested from the 
Arians, he ascended the pulpit for the last time, sur- 
rounded by the members of the General council, by 
his own beloved people, and by the wonted crowd. 
He repeated the history of his success in that city, 
described the doctrine he had preached, besought the 
bishops by forsaking their contentious practices, to 

59 - It stood on the spot now occupied by the great mosque of 
St. Sophia. 

15* 



174 



THE ANCIENT HISTORY 



heal the divisions of the church, and concluded by 
taking leave of public life and of the scenes of his 
labors. 60 He retired immediately to Nazianzum, 
where he lived in obscurity and quiet, employing 
himself in devout exercises, and in poetic composition. 
He died about A. D. 389, aged not far from seventy 
years. His plain determined integrity is worthy of 
all praise ; and the unblemished purity of his life and 
manners, though veiled under the shade of monastic 
gloom, commands our highest respect. His eloquence, 
which has been absurdly compared to that of Demos- 

60. "Farewell, A n astasia ! " said he; "thou that sawest our 
" doctrine raised up from its low despised estate ; dear seats of 
" our common victory, our new Siloam, where first the ark of our 
" God rested, after its hopeless wanderings in the desert. Fare- 
" well, too, this great and august temple, where we meet! our 
" new heritage ; thou that wast a Jebus before, now converted to 
" a Jerusalem. And ye other sacred edifices also scattered over 
"the whole city and its suburbs, farewell ! the grace of God, and 
" not our feeble exertions, hath now filled you with the faithful. 
" Thou envied and dangerous pre-eminence, episcopal throne, 
"farewell. Farewell, pontifical palace, venerable for thine age 
"and the majesty of the priesthood. Farewell ye choirs of 
" Nazareans ! whose strains of psalmody i shall no more hear, 
" whose nocturnal celebrations of our Lord's resurrection, I shall 
"no more attend. Ye holy virgins, ye widows and orphans, ye 
" eyes of the poor, turned alternately to heaven and towards the 
"preacher, farewell. Farewell, ye hospitable domes, devoted to 
" Christ, which have so often assisted my infirmity. Ye min- 
" gling throngs that crowded to my sermons, ye swift-handed 
" notaries, ye rails pressed by my greedy auditors, farewell. 
" Farewell, emperors and courts. Farewell thou imperial city, 
" whose zeal, though not perhaps according to knowledge, I yet 
" will frankly testify. May thy service of God be more sincere, 
" and thy fruits of righteousness more abundant. Ye bishops of 
"the East and West, farewell ! why will not some of you imitate 
" this my resignation, and restore peace to the divided and con- 
" tentious church ? I call you but to relinquish dignities upon 
"earth, for heavenly thrones, far safer, and more exalted. Ye 
" angels, the guardians of this church, and of my presence and 
" wanderings, farewell. Thou sacred Trinity ! my meditation 
"and my glory, O may I hear of the daily increase of this my 
"people, their growth in knowledge and grace. And ye, my 
"people, for mine ye are, though another shall govern you, — my 



OF UNIVERSALISM. 



175 



thenes, was formed on the turgid style of the Asiatics, 
rather than on the severe simplicity of the Grecian ; 
and it was therefore the better adapted to discourse 
on mysteries, and to excite the wonder of an ignorant 
populace. 

The feebleness of a body, subdued by rigorous 
austerities, must have increased the sensibility of his 
temperament ; and this, united with the generous and 
confiding character of his affections, exposed him to 
perpetual afflictions from the baseness and ingratitude 
of mankind. It is no wonder that to such a man, the 
difficult station, which he prudently resigned, was 
attended with a weight of cares insupportable. The 
church, however, has always held his memory dear ; 
and his name still occupies a respectable place on the 
pages of ecclesiastical history. 

Like Basil, he was moderately given to the alle- 
gorical method of exposition. We have already men- 
tioned their mutual admiration of Origen's writings. 

XVIII. But in this, he was perhaps surpassed by 
his friend, Gregory Nyssen, the brother of Basil the 
Great. This eminent father and bishop followed 
Origen's system in allegorizing the Scriptures, farther 
than most of his cotemporaries ; though he, still avoided 
many of his extravagances, and rejected some of his 
notions. 61 The doctrine of Universal Salvation, how- 
ever, he adopted and taught more frequently 62 than, 

"little children, keep the faith I have delivered you, remember- 
"ing my labors and my sufferings. " Greg. Nazianz. Oratio 
xxxii. fin. Tom. i. pp. 527, 528. 

61 - See Gregorii Nysseni Disputat. de Anima et Resurrect, pp. 
264, 265, 269. — Lib. de Creatione Hominis cap. 29, p. 459, and 
cap. 30, p. 462.— De Hist. Sex Dierum, pp. 293,294. Edit. Basil, 
1562. 



176 



THE ANCIENT HISTORY 



perhaps, any other early writer, whose works are 
extant. 

Endeavoring to wrest from the Arians that expres- 
sion of St. Paul, Then shall the Son also be subject 
unto him who put all things under him. (1 Cor, xv. 
28,) and to make it appear consistent with trinitarian- 
ism. he takes occasion to explain the connexion at 
large, in order to point out what he supposes to be the 
Apostle's argument : c< What therefore, " says he, " is 
" the scope of St. Paul's argument in this place ? 
" That the nature of evil shall, at length, be wholly 

62, A plea, first advanced more than three hundred vears after 
Gregory Nyssen's death to defend him from the imputation of 
Universal ism, is sometimes repeated, though in a faltering man- 
ner, bv modern critics. Germanus, bishop of Constantinople, 
who flourished about A. D. 730, contended, that in Gregorv Nvs- 
sen's Dialogue on the Soul, in his great Catechetical Oration, and 
in his Tract on the Perfect Life of a Christian, all such passages 
as taught the restoration of the devils and of the damned, had 
either been corrupted or added by the Origenists ; and for proof 
he referred to the connexions of the passages in question, and to 
the alleged fact that in other places Gregory had contradicted 
that sentiment. (See Photii Biblioth. Cod. 233.) Du Pin, who 
by the way misrepresents Germanus, manifestly desires to avail 
himself of this plea ; but at the same time, betrays his want of 
confidence in it. (Bibliotheca Patrum, Art. Gregory TSyssen.) 
The truth is, it would be impossible to take Universalism out of 
Gregory Xyssen's works, without destroying some of his pieces, 
and rendering others unintelligible ; and there is no reason to 
suspect that it was wrongfully inserted in the three books which 
Germanus names. That Gregory ever denies the doctrine in 
question, I have not discovered. The independent Daille (De 
Usu Patrum Lib. ii. cap. 4, Latin edition, for the English, and 
probably the French are incomplete) treats Germanus's supposi- 
tion with merited contempt : M it is the last resort,"' says he, " of 
"those who with a stupid and absurd pertinacity, will have it, 
" that the ancients wrote nothing difierent from the faith at pres- 
" ent received; for the whole of Gregory Nyssen's Orations are 
"so deeplv imbued with the pestiferous doctrine in question, that 
M it can have been inserted bv none other than the author him- 
"self." Dr. T. Burnet also (De Statu Mort. et Resurg. p. 138. 
London, 1733,) pronounces the plea of Germanus vain. See note 
66 following. 



OF UNIVERSALISM. 



177 



" exterminated, and divine, immortal goodness em- 
" brace within itself every rational creature ; so that 
" of all who were made by God, not one shall be ex- 
" eluded from his kingdom. All the viciousness, that 
" like a corrupt matter is mingled in things, shall be 
u dissolved and consumed in the furnace of purgatorial 
" fire ; and every thing that had its origin from God, 
" shall be restored to its pristine state of purity. " 
The author proceeds to contend, in his abstruse and 
mystical way, that the human nature which Christ 
assumed, being so intimately connected with the com- 
mon nature of man, that the Apostle here calls it " the 
first fruits " of the human race ; the subjection of all 
mankind to God may, by a figure, be called the sub- 
jection of Christ himself, the first fruits. " When 
" therefore the dominion of sin within us, shall be en- 
" tirely overthrown, every thing must, of course, be 
u subject to him who rules over all ; because there 
" can be no opposing inclination in the universe. 
" Now, subjection to God is perfect and absolute 
" alienation from evil. Wherefore, when we all shall 
" be freed from sin, and perfectly assimilated to Christ, 
" our first fruits, and made one uniform body with him, 
" then what is called the subjection of Christ, is, in 
" reality, accomplished in us ; and because we are his 
" body, our subjection is attributed to him who efFect- 
" ed it in ourselves. Such we think is the meaning of 
" St. Paul in this passage : For as in Adam all die, 
" so also through Christ shall all be made alive ; but 
66 every one in his own order : Christ, the first fruits ; 
u then they who are Chrisfs at his coming ; then 
(C cometh the end, when he shall have delivered up the 



178 



THE ANCIENT HISTORY 



" kingdom to God even the Father, when he shall 
u have abolished all dominion, and authority, and 
<c poiver. For he must reign till he hath put all ene- 
c: mies under his feet. The last enemy, death, shall 
u be destroyed. For he hath put all things under his 
"feet. But ivhen he saith, All things are put under 
" him, it is manifest that he is excepted who did put 
" all things under him. And when all things shall 
" be subjected to him, then shall the Son also himself 
" be subjected to him who put all things under him ; 
<* that God may be all in all. (1 Cor. xv. 22—28.) 
" It is manifest that here the apostle declares the ex- 
" tinction of all sin, saying, that God will be all in all. 
" For God will be truly all in all only when no evil 
" shall remain in the nature of things, as he is never 
" engaged in evil, v &c. 63 

Gregory held different degrees of happiness in heav- 
en, apportioned to the different merits which the blessed 
had acquired upon earth ; 64 and different degrees of 
future punishment, according to the various characters 
of the sufferers : " I believe," said he, " that punishment 
" will be administered in proportion to each one's cor- 
" ruptness. For it would be unequal to torment with 
" the same purgatorial pains, him who has long in- 
" dulged in transgression, and him who has only fallen 
into a few common sins. But that grievous flame 
" shall burn for a longer or shorter period, according 
" to the kind and quantity of the matter that supports 
" it. Therefore, to whom there is much corruption 

63 - Tract, in Dictum Apostoli, Tunc ctiam ipse Filius sub jicietur, 
&c. p. 137, and seqq. 64 - Lib. De Infantibus qua3 pra?mature abri- 
piuntur. 



OF UNIVERSALISM. 



179 



" attached, with him it is necessary that the flame, 
66 which is to consume it, should be great, and of long 
" duration ; but to him in whom the wicked disposi- 
" tion has been already in part subjected, a propor- 
" tional degree of that sharper and more vehement 
" punishment shall be remitted. All evil, however, 
u must, at length, be entirely removed from every 
" thing, so that it shall no more exist. For such be- 
" ing the nature of sin, that it cannot exist without a 
" corrupt motive, it must, of course, be perfectly dis- 
" solved and wholly destroyed, so that nothing can 
" remain a receptacle of it, when all motive and influ- 
" ence shall spring from God alone. " &,c. 65 

In another place he asserts that as the devil c as- 
sumed a fleshly shape in order to ruin human nature, 
'so the Lord took flesh for the salvation of man ; and 
6 thus he blesses not only him who was ruined, but him 
' also who led him into perdition ; so that he both de- 
; livers man from sin, and heals the author of sin him- 
< self. 5766 

Like the earlier Universalists, Gregory freely applied 
the word everlasting to future punishment ; a circum- 
stance which, probably, has betrayed some critics into 
the hasty conclusion, that he sometimes denied the 
doctrine of Universal Restotation, and asserted that of 
endless misery. A remarkable use of that phrase oc- 
curs in a passage where he alludes to the ultimate fate 

G5 - Disputatio de Anima et Resurrectione, p. 260. G6 - Oratio 
Catechetica, cap. 26. I here subjoin the titles of those works in 
which Gregory Nyssen teaches Universalism : De Anima et Res- 
urrectione. — Oratio Catechetica. — De Infantibus qui pracmature 
abripiuntur. — Oratio de Mortuis. — In dictum Apostoli, Tunc ipse 
Filius subjicietur Patri. — De Perfectione Christiani. 



180 



THE ANCIENT HISTORY 



of such as have become confirmed in debauchery : 
" whoever, 35 says he, " considers the divine power, 
" will plainly perceive that it is able, at length, to re- 
" store, by means of the everlasting purgation and ex- 
" piatory sufferings, those who have gone even to this 
" extremity of wickedness. " 67 

XIX. His general system of doctrine, it is unneces- 
sary to state at large, since it was the same that dis- 
tinguished the orthodox of his age. A few particulars, 
however, may be specified : The opinion, universally 
received by the Christians of this century, that regene- 
ration was experienced only in the rite of water bap- 
tism, was, of course, entertained by Gregory ; and 
with them he agreed, that it was effected by the exer- 
tions of the human will., aided by the proffered assis- 
tance of the divine spirit. Predestination and irresisti- 
ble grace, in their modern sense, were as yet unknown 
in the church. In one or two respects, our author 
was an honorable exception to the prevalent superstit- 
ion of his cotemporaries : he dissuaded from the grow- 
ing practice of pilgrimages to shrines and holy places ; 
and, though a patron of the monastic life, he defended 
the excellence of matrimony, both by precept and ex- 
ample ; being himself one of the few married bishops 
of that age. 

He has left one production, his Life of Gregory 
ThaumaturguS) which involves him, as an author, in 
the charge, either of unbounded credulity, or of total 
disregard of historical truth. It is a worthless legend, 
enlivened only with fictitious miracles the most foolish, 



67 • Dc Infantibus qui premature abripiunter, p. 178. 



OF UNIVERSALISM. 



181 



and with disgusting tales the most incredible. That 
he even presumed to lay it before the world, is a suf- 
ficient indication of the universal stupidity, and of the 
thorough corruption of the public taste. Could illus- 
trious precedent, however, exonerate from the crimi- 
nality of falsehood or disingenuous fiction, he might 
justly plead that of the great Athanasius, who appears 
to have set the first example of these monkish roman- 
ces, by his Life of Anthony ; and three or four produc- 
tions, of the same character, which soon afterwards 
appeared under the honored names of Jerome and 
Sulpitius Severus, have contributed much to relieve 
Gregory from the disgrace of solitary folly. The rest 
of our author's works are composed in a style dry, in- 
volved and obscure ; and they abound in absurd alle- 
gories and abstruse mysticism. In learning, he was 
second to few of his day ; in influence, he stood 
among the first in the orthodox party. It is remarka- 
ble that he has never been condemned for his Univer- 
salism ; and that he was never even censured for it, 
till two or three centuries after his death. 

In his youth he was so strongly inclined to a lite- 
rary life, that it was with much difficulty he was per- 
suaded to abandon his favorite study of rhetoric, in 
order to take upon himself the duties of the ministry. 
About A. D. 371, when not far from thirty-two years 
old, he was ordained bishop of Nyssa, a small city in 
the western part of Cappadocia. Valens, the Arian 
emperor, being then on the throne of Constantinople, 
drove several orthodox bishops into exile ; and in the 
year 374, procured, by the means of his lieutenant 
Demosthenes, the expulsion of Gregory from his 
16 



182 



THE ANCIENT HISTORY 



church. But, after four years of absence, he was 
recalled, with the rest of the banished bishops, on the 
accession of Theodosius the Great, and permanently 
established in his office. Soon afterwards, either the 
council of Antioch, or that of Constantinople appoint- 
ed him to visit, w r ith other delegates, the churches of 
Pontus and those of Arabia, in order to revive among 
them the orthodox faith and discipline ; and the new 
emperor honored him, in the prosecution of this duty, 
with a public conveyance. It appears that some time 
after his return, he w r as called to Constantinople, on 
the death of the empress Placilla, in A. D. 385, to 
pronounce her funeral oration. He died at Nyssa, 
about the year 394, aged nearly sixty. 

XX. We have somewhat delayed the introduction 
of an eminent Universalist who flourished, at this peri- 
od, among the orthodox in Egypt, and whose renown 
for profane and sacred learning filled all the East. 
Didymus, the blind, of Alexandria, though much older 
than Basil or either of the Gregories, seems not to 
have acquired his extensive reputation, till their fame 
also had spread through the church* Deprived for- 
ever of his eye-sight when only five years old, he 
nevertheless succeeded in making himself master of 
grammar, rhetoric, logic, music, arithmetic* and even 
the most difficult parts of the mathematics ; and his 
knowledge of divinity was so highly esteemed, that 
he was elected President of the great Catechetical 
School in his native city. He was a professed ad- 
mirer of Origen, whom he considered as his master, 
and whose books Of Principles he illustrated with 



OF UNIVERSALISM, 



183 



brief Commentaries, defending them against the mis- 
constructions of the Arians. 

That he was a Universalist, the uncontradicted tes- 
timony of cotemporary and succeeding writers, 68 is, 
perhaps, sufficient evidence; but his condemnation, as 
such, by the General council of Constantinople, more 
than a century and a half after his death, confirms the 
fact, and at the same time proves that, with the doc- 
trine of the Restoration, he also held that of the Pre- 
existence of souls. 69 That posthumous sentence of 
excommunication, however, by consigning his hereti- 
cal works to destruction, has denied us the satisfaction 
of adducing his own language ; but even in the few 
of his writings that still remain, we find some traces of 
the obnoxious doctrine, which were probably overlook- 
ed by the ancient censors. He says that 66 as man- 
" kind, by being reclaimed from their sins, are to be 
" subjected to Christ in the fulness of the dispensation 
" instituted for the salvation of all, so the superior ra- 
" tional intelligences, the angels, will be reduced to 
" obedience by the correction of their vices. " 70 It 
is said that he also disapproves of all servile fear, 71 

Though not reckoned among the Origenists of his 
time, Didymus was undoubtedly regarded by them, 
and justly too, as their chief patron. We can hardly 

63 - Jerome and Rufinus allude to it, as a well known fact. Cy- 
rillus Scythopolitanus, (Vita? S. P. Sabse cap. 90. inter Cotelerii 
Mon. Eccl. GraecsB Tom. iii.) a writer of the sixth century, is the 
next whom I recollect. 69 - Cyrill. Scythopolit. Vit. S. P. Sabae 
cap. 90. 70 - Didymi Comment, in 1 Pet. iii. I have not access 
to this work, which is to be found only in the great Bibliotheca 
Patrum ; and I therefore quote from Huetii Origenian. Lib. ii. cap. 
2. Q,ua3st. iii. § 26. 71 - Du Pin's Biblioth. Pat. Art. Didymus. 
He refers to the above-named work. 



184 



THE ANCIENT HISTORY 



suppose that their own character was so perverse as 
it was afterwards represented, when we consider the 
favor manifestly shown them by a Christian scholar of 
his apparent good sense, and, what was yet more rare, 
invariable candor. He was a voluminous writer ; but 
only two or three of his works, his treatise On the 
Holy Ghost, his Commentaries on the Canonical 
Epistles, and a fragment of his book Against the 
Maiiichea?is,™ have survived the waste of time, and 
the exterminatins; decrees of later ages. During his 
life, however, he was accounted a distinguished cham- 
pion of the orthodoxy of that period ; and he died 
peacefully in the general communion, honored and 
esteemed by the church. Like most of his cotempo- 
raries, he engaged heartily in support of the monastic 
institution ; and his renown, and his influential station 
as president of the first school in Christendom, enabled 
him to exert his zeal with much effect. In the list of 
scholars, who, at various times, studied under him, 
appear the names of Jerome, Rufinus, Palladius and 
Isidorus. He died probably in the year 394, aged 
about ninety. 73 

XXI. Could learning, talents, and im- 
a. d. 380, mortal renown, when dissociated from 
to 390. sound integrity and the mild spirit of the 
gospel, confer honor on any doctrine, 
Universalism might exult in pronouncing the famous 

72 - There are some fragments of Commentaries on the Psalms, 
bearing his name, in the u Aurea Catena, interprete Daniele Bar- 
baro.'' Venetiis, 1569. But I suppose that we have no good 
authority for attributing these to Didymus. 73 - Hieronymi 
Catalog. Art. Didymus Alexandrinus. Tom. iv. Du Pin mistakes 
his age, if indeed the figures in his account, be not an error of the 
press. 



OF UNIVERSALIS^. 



185 



Jerome one of her advocates. About the middle of 
this century, 74 he was sent, while yet a boy, from his 
native Pannonia beyond the Adriatic, to pursue his 
studies at Rome. Having at length completed his 
education there, and received baptism, he travelled, 
with an insatiable thirst for knowledge, first into the 
West, and visited the learned men in Gaul ; whence 
he returned, and, after a short stay in Italy, continued 
his journey, around the head of the Adriatic, into the 
East. Here he spent many years in Syria, Palestine 
and Egypt, studying with the eminent fathers and 
doctors, attending the councils, and practising the 
monastic discipline in all its rigors. In the course of 
these various pursuits, he studied awhile (about A. D. 
380,) under Gregory Nazianzen at Constantinople ; 
and after making a visit, of some length, at Rome, he 
sailed to Egypt, and entered the monasteries of Nitria, 
in the year 386. He soon came down to Alexandria, 
however, and there spent about a month under the 
instructions of Didymus. But disliking the Origenists, 
though himself a professed admirer of their master, 
he left Egypt and retired to Palestine. Secluded in a 
little cell at Bethlehem, amid the scenes of our Sa- 
viour's nativity, he devoted his time to monkish aus- 
terities, and to writing Commentaries, in imitation of 
Origen, on the New Testament. These appeared 
about A. D. 388. 

In that upon Ephesians, he represents the Apostle 
as teaching that all mankind shall eventually come, in 

74 - The year of Jerome's birth is uncertain. Du Pin whom I 
follow, has attempted a chronology of the principal events of his 
life, according to which he must have been born about A. D. 340, 
or 342, Biblioth. Pat. Art. Jerome, Note (b.) 

16* 



186 



THE ANCIENT HISTORY 



the unity of the faith, and in the knowledge of the Son 
of God, into a perfect man in Christ Jesus; 75 and that 
" in the end, or consummation of things, all shall be 
" restored to their original state, and be again united 
" in one body. " 76 He says " we cannot be ignorant 
" that Christ's blood benefitted the angels and those 
" who are in hell ; though we know not the manner 
" in which it produced such effects. " 77 In another 
passage, he represents " the whole intelligent creation 
by the simile of an animal body, " of which the flesh, 
arteries, veins, nerves and bones, having been dissect- 
ed and scattered around, are all to be united again, 
by a skilful hand, and reanimated. " Now, " contin- 
ues he, " in the restitution of all things, when Christ, 
" the true Physician, shall come to heal the body of 
" the universal church, torn at present and dislocated 
" in its members, then shall every one, according to 
" the measure of his own faith and knowledge of the 
" Son of God, assume his proper office, and return to 
" his original state ; not, however, as some heretics 
C£ represent, that all will be changed into angels, or 
" made into creatures of one uniform rank. But each 
" member shall be made perfect according to his pe- 
" culiar office and capacity. For instance, the apos- 
" tate angel shall become such as he was created ; 
" and man, who has been cast out of paradise, shall 
" be restored thither again. And this shall be accom- 
" plished in such a way, as that all shall be united to- 
" gether by mutual charity, so that the members will 

75 - Hieronymi Comment. Lib. ii. in Epist. ad Ephes. cap. iv. 13. 
Tom. iv. Part. i. Edit. Martianay. 76 - Ditto, ad Ephes, cap. iv. 
4. 77< Ditto, ad Ephes. cap. iv. 10. 



OF UNIVERSALISM. 



187 



" delight in each other, and rejoice in each other's 
" promotion. Then shall the whole body of Christ, 
« the universal church, such as it was originally, dwell 
" in the celestial Jerusalem, which, in another pas- 
" sage, the Apostle calls the mother of saints. " 78 
Again, Jerome says, " the apostate angels, and the 
" prince of this world, and Lucifer the morning star, 
H though now ungovernable, licentiously wandering 
u about, and plunging themselves into the depths of 
" sin, shall, in the end, embrace the happy dominion 
" of Christ and his saints. " 79 

At the time of writing these Commentaries, Jerome 
was towards the age of fifty. His influence among 
the orthodox, we shall have abundant occasion to ex- 
emplify. At present, however, we may only trace 
a particular friendship, the unhappy termination of 
which, we shall be obliged hereafter to describe as 
agitating the church, and, in some measure, affecting 
the cause of Universalism. Nearly twenty years 
since, during his first journey into the East, he hap- 
pened to stop awhile in the city of Aquileia, at the 
northern extremity of the Adriatic, and there formed 
an acquaintance with Rufinus, a young and promising 
scholar of the place. Their friendship continued un- 
disturbed down to the present period, and even some- 
what later. Rufinus had early followed him into the 
East : in company with Melania, a noble lady of 
Rome, he had sailed to Egypt in A. D. 372, visited 

78 - Ditto, ad Ephes. cap. iv. 16. 79< Ditto. Lib. i. in Epist. ad 
Ephes. cap. ii. 7. In two other works, also, written about this 
time, Jerome asserted Universalism : Hieronymi Comment. Lib. 
ii. in Epist. ad Galatas, cap. iv. 1. — and Comment, in Amos cap. 
iv. The latter was not composed till about A. D. 390. 



188 



THE ANCIENT HISTORY 



the monks of Nitria, spent some time with Didymus 
at Alexandria, and then retired, probably the next 
year, with his patroness, to Jerusalem. Here, Me- 
lania employed her abundant wealth in religious and 
charitable donations, in advancing the monastic cause, 
and in supporting the numerous pilgrims who resorted 
to the holy places. With her, Rufinus among others 
enjoyed a quiet retreat, and devoted himself to study 
and pious services, surrounded by the venerable ob- 
jects which the Holy City presented to awaken his 
devotion. He still remained here, when Jerome took 
up his permanent abode at Bethlehem, only six miles 
distant. Both had already entered freely into the 
sentiments of Origen ; and their present intimacy was 
well calculated to cherish those notions. There is no 
reason, however, to suppose that Rufinus was, at any 
time, a Universalist ; 80 unless we may derive a faint, 
and it seems unwarrantable, suspicion, from his having 
preserved, in his numerous translations from Origen, 
those passages entire which taught Universalism, 
while he altered or omitted such as disagreed with 
the orthodox trinitarianism. This circumstance does, 
indeed, show that if he did not believe the former 
doctrine, he nevertheless regarded it, like his cotem- 
poraries, as no reprehensible error ; and his faithful 
attachment to John, the bishop of Jerusalem, confirms 
this conclusion. 

Before we pass, it should be remarked, that both 

80, Huet (Origenian. Lib. ii. cap. 2. Q,usest. xi, § 25,) thinks Ru- 
finus insinuated that though the devil would be endlessly misera- 
ble, yet guilty men would suffer only temporary punishment. But 
to me, the passages to which Huet refers, convey no intimation of 
the latter opinion, but rather the contrary. 



OF UNIVERSALIS!*!. 



189 



Jerome and Rufinus, though Latin writers, and na- 
tives of the West, belonged more properly to the 
eastern church, where their principal connexions were 
formed, and where their doctrinal education was ma- 
tured. 

XXTI. Evagrius Ponticus, who flour- 
a. d. 390. ished among the orthodox of this period, 
as a scholar and monk of considerable 
eminence, must be pronounced a Universalist, on the 
undisputed testimony of the Fifth General council ; 
in which, a century and a half after his death, he was 
anathematized, with Didymus, for having taught the 
Restoration of all, and the Pre-existence of souls. 81 
But the same sentence that has preserved the mem- 
ory of his doctrine, destroyed the obnoxious part of 
his writings, and left nothing but a few works consist- 
ing chiefly of ceremonial rules and practical instruc- 
tions for monks. In these, both their subject and the 
circumstance of their having been tolerated, render it 
improbable that any thing is to be found to our pur- 
pose. We have, therefore, only to add a brief sketch 
of his life, and then proceed to some accounts of 
other individuals. 

Having come from his native country of Pontus, to 
Cappadocia, not far from A. D. 375, he was appoint- 
ed reader in the church of Cesarea, by Basil the 
Great ; on w r hose death, Gregory Nyssen ordained 
him deacon. After awhile, Evagrius went to Con- 
stantinople, where he studied the Scriptures under 
Gregory Nazianzen, and w 7 as, by him, promoted to 

81 • Cyrilli Scythopolit. Vit. S. P. Sab?e cap. 90. 



190 



THE ANCIENT HISTORY 



the archdeaconship. Here he remained a few years 
after his master retired from the city ; but, being at 
length obliged to flee from the matrimonial jealousy of 
a nobleman, he came to Jerusalem, about A. D. 385, 
and was received and supported in the charitable 
establishment of Melania. In the society of Rufinus 
and others, he was here persuaded to embrace the 
monastic life ; and, after a residence of five years in 
Palestine, he went, in A. D. 390, to the famous 
retreat of Nitria, where he took up his permanent 
abode among the Origenists. The remainder of his 
life was passed in great austerity, and in close appli- 
cation to study and composition. He lived in the 
orthodox communion, and died, at the age of fifty- 
four, with the reputation of much sanctity and con- 
siderable learning, 89 

XXIII. Were it allowable to indulge conjecture 
on mere appearances, w T e might conclude that, nearly 
all the leading Origenists, of this period, were be- 
lievers in Universalism ; for such is the impression 
the historian must naturally feel, in contemplating 
the peculiar circumstances of their lives, their inti- 
macy with Didymus, and with others who are known 
to have held that doctrine, and their respect for the 
favorite father whose name they bore. Passing over 
the undistinguished multitude, who had, perhaps, 
only their wretchedness and austerity to recommend 
them to a momentary reputation, and whose names 
could now form, at best, but a blank catalogue, there 

82. \v e mus t not confound Evagrius Ponticus with his cotem- 
porary, Evagrius Antiochenus, nor with a later writer, Evagrius 
Scholasticus, the ecclesiastical historian. 



OF UNIVERSALIS^. 



191 



are still two or three who must here be intro- 
duced to notice. Palladius, a native of Galatia, 
and a disciple of Evagrius Ponticus in Egypt, was 
one of the ablest and most faithful supporters of the 
party. He was, now, a monk in the solitude of 
Nitria ; but ill health soon driving him into the world, 
he afterwards obtained a bishopric in Asia Minor, 
became considerably known by the part he took in 
the public affairs of the church, and preserved his 
name from oblivion by writing some historical or 
biographical works, which yet remain. Another 
influential member of the party was the venerable 
Isidorus, an aged Presbyter of Alexandria, whom 
Athanasius had ordained, many years before, and 
who had spent his early life among the monasteries 
of the Nitrian desert. 

Directing our view to the churches of Palestine, 
we behold the episcopal chair of the Holy City 
filled by John of Jerusalem, an Origenist, who with 
Isidorus, will hereafter appear, bearing an important 
part in the subject of this history, and affording some 
evidence that he w 7 as a Universalist. He had lately 
succeeded Cyrill in the bishopric of Jerusalem ; where 
he enjoyed the friendship and support of Melania, 
Rufinus, and their associates. Of his earlier life, we 
only know that he was born about A. D. 356, that 
his youth was devoted to the monastic discipline, but 
that, quitting his retirement, he was ordained pres- 
byter before the year 378, and that he was chosen 
to the see of Jerusalem in A. D. 387. 



192 



THE ANCIENT HISTORY 



XXIV. In most of the Universalists, 
a, d. 378, of this century, the influence of Origen's 
to 394. writings is abundantly manifest. There 
were some, however, who had no sym- 
pathy with that father's general system of doctrine 
and turn of thought, and who will not be suspected 
of having derived their views from him. It is well 
known, that the Antiochian or Syrian school of 
divines, so called, differed widely from the Alexan- 
drian, by rejecting the allegorical mode of interpre- 
tation and other fantastical speculations. Among 
them, Diodorus, bishop of Tarsus, is distinguished 
for the apparent soundness of his judgement, and 
for the influence which he seems to have exerted in 
the Syrian churches. By a fragment, preserved 
from his once numerous writings, we find that he, 
too, was a Universalist : " a perpetual reward," says 
he, " is appointed- to the good, a recompence of their 
" works, which is worthy the justice and equity of 
" the Rewarder. For the wicked, also, there are 
" punishments, not perpetual, however, lest the im- 
" mortality, prepared for them, should become a dis- 
advantage ; but they are to be tormented for a 
" certain brief period, proportioned to the desert and 
"measure of their faults and impiety, according to 
" the amount of malice in their works. They shall 3 
" therefore, suffer punishment for a brief space ; but 
" immortal blessedness, having no end, awaits them. 
" For, if the rewards of the good surpass their works 
" as much as the duration of the eternity prepared 
" for them exceeds the duration of their conflicts in 
"this world; so, the punishments, to be inflicted for 



OF UNIVERSAL1SM. 



193 



" heinous and manifold sins, are far more surpassed 
"by the magnitude of mercy. The resurrection, 
" therefore, is regarded as a blessing, not only to the 
" good, but also to the evil. For the grace of God 
" copiously and magnificently honors the good ; [i. e. 
" beyond their deserts ;] and it adjudges punishment 
" to the evil, in mercy and kindness. " 83 

Dioclorus was, in early life, principal of a monastic 
school, at Antioch, in which he taught with great 
reputation. Here, he was afterwards ordained pres- 
byter ; and, during the banishment of the bishop, by 
the Arian emperor Valens, he was honored with the 
charge of the church in that metropolis of the East. 
About A. D. 378, he was appointed bishop of 
Tarsus, in Cilicia, the birth-place of St, Paul ; where 
he presided till his death, in the year 393, or 394. 
He was a learned and voluminous writer, especially 
of Commentaries on the Scriptures ; but his works 
have all perished, except fragments quoted by ancient 
authors. Amidst the prevalence of allegorical inter- 
pretation, he adhered to the natural and simple import 
of the sacred text ; and it is supposed that his exam- 
ple contributed to establish this mode of exposition 
among the Syrian churches. He was held in high 
esteem by the other Greek fathers, of his day, Basil 
the Great, Gregory Nazianzen, Epiphanius, and Ath- 
anasius ; and, though he was subsequently suspected 
of having favored Nestorian views of the trinity, no 
fault was ever found with him for his Universalism, 
till many centuries after his death. It is worthy of 

83, Assemani Bibliothec. Orientalis Tom. iii. Part. i. p. 324. 

17 



194 



THE ANCIENT HISTORY 



distinct remark, that, among the scholars who studied 
under him, while at Antioch, were John Chrysostom 
and Theodorus of Mopsuestia, afterwards so cele- 
brated." 84 

XXV. Having so long confined ourselves to the 
eastern churches, where alone we can discover the 
prevalence of Universalism, we may now turn our 
attention to the West, A multitude of almost for- 
gotten, and obscure names, and if we except those of 
Optatus, a Numidian bishop, and Philastrius, an Ital- 
ian, fill the list of ecclesiastical writers, among the 
Latins, in the interval between the time of Victo- 
rinus ; and the present. Now, however, they had a 
very eminent and popular doctor in Ambrose, arch- 
bishop of Milan in Italy : a man of moderate learn- 
ing, but of a polite education, of the most vigorous 
talents, determined courage, and of an influence so 
powerful as to approach towards absolute authority in 
the state, as well as in the church. Of the future 
condition of mankind, his views nearly coincided 
with those which Hilary and Lactantius had before 

advanced: All who have attained, in 
a. d. 384, this life, to the character of perfect 
to 390. saints, such as the apostles, and some 

others, will, he supposed, rise from the 
dead in the first resurrection ; and enduring, with 
little pain, the ordeal of the flaming sword, or the 
baptism of fire, at the gate of Paradise, they will 
quickly enter into everlasting joy. But the imper- 
fect saints will undergo a trial severer in proportion 

S4 - For notices of his life, see Du Pin's Bib. Pat. Art. Diodorus 
bishop of Tarsus. Murdock's Mosheim, vol. i. p. 2 ( J5. 



OF UNIVERSALIS?*!, 



195 



to their vices ; and such as have only been believers, 
without the virtues of the gospel, whom he denomi- 
nates the sinners, will remain in the torments of fire 
till the second resurrection, and perhaps still longer, 
that they may be purified from their wickedness. 
These three classes, the perfect saints, the imperfect, 
and the sinners, shall each be arraigned, except per- 
haps the first, at the great Judgement-day ; and, 
what is remarkable, all who are then tried, shall 
sooner or later be saved. But there is another, a 
fourth class, which he distinguishes as the impious or 
the infidels, who, together with the devil and his 
angels, shall never be brought, to judgement, because 
they have been already condemned. For these he 
apparently reserves no chance of restoration, but 
leaves them to an eternity of hopeless suffering. 55 

The author usually quoted under the name of 
Ambrosiaster, who is generally supposed to have 
been one Hilary a deacon of Rome, held that all 
such believers as embrace erroneous doctrines, while 
they nevertheless retain the essential principles of 
Christianity, must be subjected to the purification of 
fire, in the future world, before they can be saved. 86 
He likewise taught that our Saviour descended, after 
his crucifixion, to the invisible regions of the dead, 
and there converted all, whether impious or ordinary 
sinners, who willingly sought his aid. 87 Indeed, 

85 - Ambrosii Mediolanensis in Psalm. 1. Enarrat. § 51, 52, 53, 
54, 56; in Ps. exviii. Exposit. Serm. iii. § 14—17. & Serm. xx. § 
12, 13, 14, 23, 24. The dates of these works are placed from 
A. D. 386 to A. D. 390. ™- Comment, ad Epist. 1 Corinth, 
cap. iii. ]5. in Append, ad Ambrosii Mediolanensis Oper. Tom. ii. 

* 7 - Comment, in Epist. ad Ephes. cap. iv. 8, 9. 



196 



THE ANCIENT HISTORY 



Christ's mission, according to him, enabled even the 
erring and apostatized powers of heaven to cast off 
the yoke of the devil, and to return to God ; 88 still, 
it appears to have been his decided belief that there 
were cases of such obstinate rebellion, among wicked 
souls as well as angels, as to be past all recovery. 

With the notice of this writer, we close, for the 
present, our account of the orthodox Christians. 

XXVI. During more than half of this century, 
the Arians were numerous enough to dispute the 
superiority in the church, especially in the East ; and 
it is natural to enquire, What were their sentiments 
with regard to the ultimate salvation of the world ? 
But we shall seek in vain for their own testimony in 
answer. Though supported, in their day, by the 
influence of eminent bishops, and defended by the 
labors of learned doctors, the victorious fortune of 
their adversaries has obliterated almost every fragment 
of their writings, and left a wide erasure which no 
learning nor art can restore. We only know that, 
except in what related to the trinity, their doctrine 
was considered the same with that of the Consub- 
stantialists ; and it seems that, in all the passion of 
controversial warfare, they never reproached their 
unsparing opponents for their frequent avowal of 
Universalism. 89 These circumstances may strengthen 

88 - Ditto, ad Ephes. cap. iii. 10. N. B. These Commentaries 
are supposed to have been written about A. D. 384. 89 - Euno- 
mius, one of the most celebrated Arians, who flourished from A. 
D. 360 to A. D. 394, is charged by three Greek writers of the 
12th century, with having held that all the threatenings of eter- 
nal torments were intended only to terrify mankind, and were 
never meant to be executed. (See Balsamon ad Canon, i. Con- 
stantincpol. And Harmcnopulus, De Sect. 13. And J. Zonaras 



OF UNIVERSALISM. 



197 



a conjecture, which is not in itself improbable, that 
the doctrine received about the same degree of pa- 
tronage among both parties ; so that neither was 
under temptation to accuse the other. From similar 
considerations, the suspicion of ambiguity naturally 
rests, likewise, upon the few Sabellians of this period. 
And we may extend the remark to the small schis- 
matical sects of Novatians, Donatists, and Meletians ; 
who were separated from the orthodox church only 
by some trivial distinctions of discipline and ecclesi- 
astical government, or by the irregular succession of 
their bishops. 

The uncertain, or perhaps divided, opinions of the 
Manicheans, on the subject of Universal Salvation, 
have been already mentioned. At present, however, 
it seems to have become the general belief, at least 
of those in Africa, 90 that many human souls would 
prove utterly irreclaimable, and be therefore stationed 
forever, as a guard, upon the frontiers of the world 
of darkness. The sect had now increased to a vast 
number, although abhorred by every other party, and 
indefatigably opposed by a large proportion of the 
orthodox writers, from Eusebius Pamphilus down- 
wards ; and it lurked in all parts of Christendom, 

ad Canon, in Deiparam.) The authority of these modern Greeks, 
however, is but small ; and in this case it is not sustained by 
any testimony more ancient, nor by the fragments of Eunomius 
yet extant. On the contrary, in the formal Declaration of Faith, 
which he sent to the emperor Theodosius, a. d. 383, he says, 
"they who persevere in impiety or sin till the close of life, shall 
"be delivered to everlasting punishment." (Fabricii Biblioth. 
Gra3C. Tom. viii. p. 260.) At the end of his Epilog, ad Apolo- 
giam, he remarks that in the general judgement, Christ will 
consign such as make light of sin, to remediless suffering. (Cavei 
Hist. Literar. Art. Eunomius, p. 222.) 90 - Lardner's Credi- 
bility, &c. Chap. Mani and his Followers. Sect. iv. § 18. 

17* 



198 



THE ANCIENT HISTORY 



notwithstanding it had been repeatedly proscribed by 
the edicts of successive emperors. Already could 
the alarming and inextinguishable heresy boast of 
many eminent advocates, and of some respectable 
authors ; and for several years it was honored with 
the patronage of the young Augustine, the future 
bishop of Hippo and renowned orthodox father. The 
care of a pious mother had trained him up in the 
principles of the catholic faith ; but, at the age of 
seventeen, he imbibed the sentiments of Mani ; and, 
though never a very zealous partizan nor a thoroughly 
instructed disciple, he continued to cherish the pro- 
scribed doctrine, till he entered on his thirty-first year. 
Residing however at Milan in Italy, in A. D. 385, he 
was so struck with the arguments and illustrations of 
the eloquent archbishop Ambrose, that he resolved to 
forsake the heresy ; and in the course of a year or 
two, he was fully converted to the orthodox religion, 
and received, by baptism, into the church. 



CHAPTER VII. 



[From A. D. 391, to A. D. 404.] 

I. The three principal sees of christen- 
a» d. 391. dom were now filled by Pope Siricius at 
Rome, by the ambitious and unprincipled 
Theophilus at Alexandria, and by Evagrius, (not Eva- 
grius Ponticus) at Antioch. Of some inferior, yet dis- 
tinguished bishoprics, that of Constantinople was held 
by old Nectarius, successor of Gregory Nazianzen ; 
that of the island Cyprus, by Epiphanius, the aged 
and persevering enemy of the Origenists ; and John 
the Universalis!, presided over that of Jerusalem. In 
the West, Ambrose governed the churches of Milan, 
and by his astonishing influence, controled the civil as 
well as the religious concerns of Italy and Gaul. Of 
a multitude of ecclesiastical writers who flourished at 
this time, we may here mention only three : the learn- 
ed Jerome, whose fame had already filled the world ; 
young Chrysostorn, the prince of Christian orators, 
whose renown began to extend beyond the sphere of 
his labors in the great city of Antioch ; and the im- 
mortal Augustine, who was rising into notice, amidst 
his native Numidia in Africa. Of the authors for- 
merly mentioned, Titus of Bostra and Basil the Great 
had long been dead ; Gregory Nazianzen expired in 
his native village, about two years before ; Didymus 
still survived, at Alexandria, but in extreme old age ; 



200 



THE ANCIENT HISTORY 



and Gregory Nyssen had approached within three or 
four years the close of his life. Jerome continued at 
his cell in Bethlehem ; Evagrius Ponticus and Palla- 
dium of Gallatia were among the monasteries of Nitria ; 
and lsidorus was at Alexandria, under the patronage 
of the archbishop Theophilus. 

The long struggle between the Consubstantialists 
and the Arians, had now ceased throughout the civil- 
ized world. The latter, driven from all their numer- 
ous churches in the East, by the vigorous and unspar- 
ing persecution of Theodosius the Great, and from 
those in the West, by the imperial authority of Gra- 
tian, had taken refuge among the barbarous nations of 
Goths and Vandals. The schismatical sects were, 
in a measure, suppressed ; and, or a moment, the 
weapons of controversy and violence, which the or- 
thodox had so long wielded, seemed to hang useless 
in their hands. But an occasion for their use soon 
occurred, among themselves, in a personal contention, 
obscure and trifling at first, which swelled and extend- 
ed by degrees, till it agitated the whole church. 

II. Epiphanius, visiting Jerusalem, this year, 1 and 
preaching there before a large concourse in the cathe- 
dral church, made an insidious attack upon John the 
bishop, by inveighing against Origen, whom the latter 
was known to admire. He reproached that ancient 
father, in his wonted strain, as the parent of Aria n ism 

*• The dates in this contention with the Origenists, down to the 
year 397, I have endeavored, with some care, to calculate from 
Martianay's chronological notes prefixed to the 4th. Tom. of his 
edition of Jerome, and from several expressions found in Epist. 
xxxiii. ami xxxviii. Hieronymi Opp. Tom. iv. Part ii. Some of 
these dates have manifestly been mistaken by Huet, Du Pin, 
Fleury, &c. 



OF UNIVEXtSALISM. 



201 



and other heresies ; till at length John sent his arch- 
deacon, in view of the whole assembly, to request him 
to forbear. A procession followed, to the place of our 
Saviour's crucifixion ; and, on the way, the two pre- 
lates betrayed some indications of resentment on the 
one hand, and of disregard on the other. After their 
return, and while the people still waited, John himself 
addressed them ; and, as many opposers of the Ori- 
genists actually attributed to Deity a body like our 
own x he declaimed vehemently against that gross 
error, in order to reflect the suspicion of it upon Epi- 
phanius. But the latter, immediately standing up, 
joined his brother in severely reprobating the notion ; 
then, turning suddenly, called upon the assembly to 
condemn likewise the perverse dogmas of Origen ; 
and he even besought and warned John himself to 
avoid them. This undisguised attack produced some 
sensation among the people, and left, it seems, an in- 
delible impression on the minds of both the bishops. 2 

A year or two afterwards, Epiphanius 
a. d. 393. came again into Palestine, and spent a 
while at a monastery he had founded in 
his native village, about twenty miles west of Jerusa- 
lem, Though the natural simplicity of the bishop of 
Cyprus may, perhaps, forbid the suspicion of inten- 
tional wrong, yet his inconsiderate officiousness, and 
his childish vanity, which led him sometimes to over- 
look the prescribed rights of others, gave just occasion 
for the apprehensions of John, 3 that this visit would 

2 - Hieronymi Epist. xxxviii. vel. 61. Tom. iv. Part. ii. pp. 312, 
313, Edit. Martianay. And Epiphanii Epist. ad Jobannem Hie- 
rosolym. in eodem Tom. p. 824/ * Epiphanii Epist. ad Johan, 
p. 823. 



202 



THE ANCIENT HISTORY 



be marked with some act of intrusion. No sooner had 
Paulinianus, the brother of Jerome, arrived on busi- 
ness from Bethlehem, than Epiphanius, who had long 
sought the opportunity, ordered him to be seized, 
stopped his mouth to prevent his refusal, and then, by 
force, made him deacon, — a mode of procedure not 
very unfrequent in that age. A few days afterward, 
he seized him again, during the services of the monas- 
tery, and with the same violence, imposed on him the 
more sacred ordination of presbyter. This official act, 
performed by Epiphanius out of his own jurisdiction, 
and in the neighborhood, if not within the diocess, of 
Jerusalem, highly exasperated John ; who complained 
angrily of the insult he had suffered in the ordination 
of one of his monks of Bethlehem, without his know- 
ledge and permission. An unfounded report also 
reached his ears, that Epiphanius w r as in the habit of 
abusing him in his public prayers. The pilgrims, 
who resorted to the Holy City, heard, and on their 
return probably circulated, his complaints and invec- 
tives ; and he at length threatened openly to send 
letters to the churches of the East and West, and 
thus publish his wrongs to the world. 4 

III. The news of the disturbance he 
a. d. 394, had left behind him in Palestine, soon 
reached Epiphanius at Cyprus ; and he 
at length, wrote to John, endeavoring to excuse his 
ordination of Paulinianus, by alleging a practice 
among the bishops of his island to officiate, on similar 
occasions without regard to each other's jurisdictions. 

4 - Epiphanii Epist. ad. Johan. p. 8.23. And Hieronymi Epist. 
xxxix. vel. 62, p. 337. 



OF UNIVERSALISM. 



203 



He declared; however, that he well knew that John's 
wrath arose, not from this ordination, but from the old 
reproof for Origenism ; and, earnestly beseeching him 
to save himself from the " untoward generation of her- 
etics," he proceeded to enumerate the several errors of 
Origen. This catalogue, though nearly the same he 
had published eighteen years before, is distinguished 
for containing the first censure, on record, against 
Universalism. "1. Who among the catholics," said 
he, " and such as adorn their faith with good works, 
" can hear, with an undisturbed mind, the doctrine of 
" Origen. or believe that notorious declaration of his, 
" The Son cannot behold the Father, nor the Holy 
u Ghost the Son ! 2. Who can endure him, when 
" he says that souls were originally angels in heaven, 
" but cast down into this world, after sinning in the 
" celestial state, and imprisoned here in bodies, as in 
u sepulchres, in order to punish them for their former 
" transgressions ! so that the bodies of believers are 
" not the temple of Christ, but the prisons of the 
" damned. 3. That also which he strove to estab- 
" lish, I know not whether to laugh or grieve at : Ori- 
66 gen, the renowned doctor, dared to teach that the 
" devil is again to become what he originally was, to 
" return to his former dignity, and to enter the king- 
" dom of heaven ! O wickedness ! who is so mad 
" and stupid as to believe that holy John Baptist, and 
" Peter, and John the Apostle and Evangelist, and 
" that Isaiah also, and Jeremiah, and the rest of the 
" prophets, are to become fellow-heirs with the devil 
" in the kingdom of heaven ! 4. I pass over his 
" frivolous explanation of the coats of skins : with 



204 THE ANCIENT HISTORY 

" what labor, with how many arguments, he strove 
c: to make us believe that those coats were human 
" bodies ! Among other things, he asks, Was God a 
u leather-dresser, that he should take the skins of 
" animals and jit them into coats for Adam and 
" Eve ? Therefore it is manifest, says Origen, 
" that it is spoken of our bodies. 5. Who can 
" patiently bear with him while he denies the res- 
C£ urrection of this flesh ? as he manifestly does, in 
" his explanations of the first psalm, and in many 
" other places. 6. Or who can endure his notion 
" that paradise, or the garden of Eden, was in the 
Ci third heaven ! thus transferring it from the earth 
" to the skies, and, by an allegorical interpretation, 
" representing its trees to be angelic powers ! 7. 
" Who but must instantly reject and condemn his 
" delusions, that those waters above the firmament, 
" mentioned in Genesis, are not waters, but certain 
celestial spirits ; and that those under the firma- 
£ - ment, are demons ! Why, then, do we read that, 
" in the deluge, the windows of heaven were opened, 
" and the waters of the flood descended ? O, the 
" madness and stupidity of men who have neglected 
u what is said in Proverbs, My son, hear the word of 
u t a y father, and forsake not the law of thy mother. 
" 8. I do not attempt to dispute against all his errors; 
" they are innumerable : but among other things he 
" even dared to say that Adam lost the image of 
" God ! when there is not one passage of Scripture 
u that intimates it. If, indeed, that were the case, 
" then would all things, in the world, never have 
" been made subject to Adam's posterity, the human 



OF UNIVERSALISM. 



205 



C( race, as James the apostle teaches, " 5 Such are 
the particulars that Epiphanius selected for special re- 
prehension. He again exhorted John, as his own son, 
to abstain from the heresy ; and lamented that so 
many of their brethren had been already made " food 
for the devil. " 

We have said that in this passage occurs the first 
censure, which is to be found in all antiquity, against 
the doctrine of Universalism. We must remark, how- 
ever, that, even here, the censure falls, as the reader 
may perceive, not on the doctrine of the salvation of 
all mankind, but on that of the salvation of the devil. 
This distinction, though it may seem captious, is of 
some consequence to an accurate understanding of 
subsequent occurrences. 

IV. With the Letter to John, Epiphanius sent 
others, on the same subject, to the bishops of Pales- 
tine f and, as copies of the former as well as of the 
latter were freely circulated through the province, the 
matter soon awakened general interest. 7 Many of the 
people, many of the clergy seem to have adhered to 
John ; and Rufinus and Melania espoused his cause, 
as did also Palladius of Galatia, 8 who had lately 
arrived from Nitria. But others, especially the monks 
of Bethlehem, took up for Epiphanius, withdrew from 

5 - Epiphanii Epist. ad Johannem, inter Hieronymi Opp. Tom. 
iv. Part. ii. Edit. Martianay. I give a faithful translation of Epi- 
phanius's Catalogue of Origen's errors ; but I have inserted the 
figures between the several particulars; omitted three uninterest- 
ing, and to most readers, unintelligible arguments which in the 
original stood between the 2d and 3d, the 4th and 5th, and the 6th 
and 7th errors ; and passed over the exhortation which occurred 
between the 7th and 8th. 6 - Hieronymi Epist. xxxviii. adv. Jo- 
han. Hierosol. p. 334. 7 - Hieron. Epist. xxxiii. vel. 101. adPam- 
mach. p. 248. 8 - Epiphani Epist. ad Johan. pp. 827, 829. 

18 



206 THE ANCIENT HISTORY 

the communion of their accused bishop, 9 and in return- 
suffered from him, it appears, some condemnatory sen- 
tence for their refractory procedure. 10 

Jerome, the admirer, and imitator of Origen, we 
should expect, of course, to discover among his bish- 
op's adherents ; but two or three circumstances con- 
spired to engage him on the opposite side : The 
strongest affections of nature inclined him to defend 
the ordination of his own brother ; some personal 
differences he had formerly had with the professed 
Origenists, both at Rome and Nitria. were, perhaps, 
remembered with resentment ; and his pride of learn- 
ing, his haughty and petulant, spirit, must have made 
him restless under the immediate government of an 
ecclesiastical superior, who was his junior in age, and 
whom he might justly regard as far his inferior in 
talents and acquirements. He joined the party of 
Epipbamus, or perhaps gathered it, and translated the 
Letter to John, for the private use of such monks as 
were acquainted only with the Latin language. His 

translation, though intended for confiden- 
a. d, 395. tial circulation, found its way, the next 

year, 11 to Jerusalem ; and it was imme- 
diately censured, by Rufinus, as unfaithful to the hon- 
orable appellations bestowed, in the original, upon his 
bishop. From this moment, we discover an open 
breach in the early and long cherished affection of the 
two friends : Jerome, who could not bear reproof, de- 
fended himself, and resented the criticism with his 

9 - Hieron. Epist. adv. Johan. xxxviii. p. 308. 10 - Ditto. And 
p. 333. And£pist.xxxix.adTheophilum,p.338,&e. Hie- 
ron. Epist. xxxiii. p. 248. 



OF UNIVERSALISM. 



207 



accustomed abuse, by calling its author a pseudo- 
monk, 12 

V. The noise of the quarrel in Palestine had 
reached Alexandria ; and Isidorus, the aged patron 
of Origenism, felt himself called upon to encourage 
his brethren. Relying with a misplaced confidence 
on the integrity of his former friends, he addressed a 
letter to one Vincentius, a presbyter and monk at 
Bethlehem, whom he had probably seen, about ten 
years before, in company with Jerome in Egypt. He 
exhorted him to stand firm on the rock of faith, nor be 
terrified by the threats of the adversaries. " I my- 
self" added he, u - shall soon come to Jerusalem, and 
" the band of enemies shall be dispersed, who, always 
a resisting the faith of the church, attempt now to dis- 
" turb the minds of the simpler sort. ' ?13 But Vincen- 
tius, it seems, had already followed the example of his 
master Jerome, in siding with Epiphanius ; and this 
letter accordingly proved a providential warning, in- 
stead of an encouragement. 

The increasing contention, which attracted the no- 
tice of foreign Christians, alarmed the friends of tran- 
quillity at home. Archelaus, one of the civil officers 
of the province, was vainly endeavoring to allay the 
disturbance. He invited both parties to a mutual 
conference, in which they should agree upon a com- 
mon declaration of faith ; but when the day arrived, 
John was absent on some parochial duty ; and he 
never appeared, though the council, in reply to his 

12 - Ditto, Hieron. Epist. xxxviii. p. 330. 



208 



THE ANCIENT HISTORY 



excuse, offered to wait his convenience, at least for a 
few days. 14 

Two months afterwards a deputation arrived, not 
unexpectedly, from Theophilus, the powerful and 
aspiring archbishop of Egypt ; who, either on the 
request of John, or at his own suggestion, gladly 
embraced this opportunity to extend his influence 
over the foreign churches of Palestine. Isidorus 
himself was entrusted with the commission, and as 
deputy, brought letters from the Alexandrian primate 
to John and Jerome, the respective heads of the con- 
tending parties. But a professed and zealous Ori- 
genist was much better qualified to inflame than to 
compose a difficulty, in which his favorite doctrine 
was involved ; and on his arrival, his subserviency to 
the bishop of Jerusalem was so manifest, that Jerome 
refused, with reason, his partial mediation, 15 

VI. Frustrated in the special object of his mission, 
Isidorus devoted himself exclusively to the assistance 

of John. The letter of Epiphanius had 
a. d. 398. now lain, unanswered, before the public, 

nearly two years ; and the bishop avail- 
ed himself of his friend's assistance to produce a 
Reply. It was addressed in the name of John, to 
Theophilus at Alexandria, to whose decision it ap- 
pealed. The author, or authors, related the history 
of the difficulty, complained of the ordination of Pau- 
linianus, inveighed against Jerome, and charged him 
with inconsistency in reproaching Origen whom he 
had translated and extolled ; and they finally pro- 



Ditto, pp. 331, 332. 15 - Ditto, pp. 330, 331. 



OF UNIVERSALIS^. 209 

ceeded to an examination of the errors which Epipha- 
nius had enumerated, and, by implication, charged 
against John. Out of the eight, however, the wri- 
ters answered to three only : to the first, concerning 
the Trinity ; to the second, concerning Pre-existence ; 
and to the fifth, concerning the Resurrection. On 
these three points, they explained themselves favora- 
bly, 16 or absolutely rejected the errors alleged ; but, if 
we may rely on the minute account, or on the confi- 
dent judgement, of their prejudiced adversary, Jerome, 
they felt unprepared to disclaim the other five particu- 
lars in the catalogue. That they cautiously avoided 
any notice of them, is indubitable ; and we may adopt 
the very natural conclusion, that they really held what 
they so warily passed over, the salvation of the devil 
as well as the allegorical expositions of Origen. 17 
With this Reply to Epiphanius, or Apology to The- 
ophilus, Isidorus departed for Alexandria j and he 
probably assisted in spreading copies of it through the 
churches. 

VII. These copies were extensively dispersed, and 
soon reached Italy and Rome, where the Lette?* of 
Epiphanius had been already circulated. Here, as 
in other places, the people were variously affected, 
some inclining to one party, some to the other ; and 
one of Jerome's correspondents wrote to him on the 

16 - According to Jerome, (Epist. xxxviii.) they prevaricated on 
these points ; but I think it evident from his own account that 
they fully denied that of Pre-existence. 17, Hieron. Epist. xxxviii. 
adv. Johan. Hierosolym. Their rejection of the error concerning 
Pre-existence would, however involve a denial of those concern- 
ing the coats of skins, and the garden of Eden. John's Apology 
to Theophilus is lost ; and we can judge of its contents only from 
Jerome's account. 

18* 



210 



THE ANCIENT HISTORY 



perplexities which the subject had occasioned, re- 
questing a full statement of the affair. The commu- 
nication of intelligence through a distance of nearly 
five hundred leagues, must have been dilatory and 
tedious ; and Jerome seems to have taken the earliest 
opportunity, on receipt of the request, 
a. d. 397. to compose his bitter and sarcastic An- 
swer to John's Apology. He addressed 
it, for the most part, directly to John himself ; but it 
was published in the form of a letter to his enquiring 
friend at Rome. The origin of the quarrel, the 
measures that had been adopted for a reconciliation, 
the answers which John had given to the three errors, 
and his silence with regard to the rest, were related 
and discussed at considerable length ; and Jerome 
concluded, by defending his own party from his 
bishop's accusations, and by retorting on him the 
charge of disturbing the church, 18 

He had just received a letter from Theophilus, 
exhorting the monks to peace and reconciliation with 
their bishop. It was an object of much importance 
to secure the assistance, or at least the neutrality, of 
this worldly minded but active and influential prelate, 
who had hitherto appeared to favor the cause of John. 
Jerome immediately replied to him in a flattering 
and insinuating strain ; and declared that, agreeably 
to his recommendation, he himself was sincerely for 
peace ; for such peace, however, as would, in reality, 
be cordial, for the peace of Christ ; intimating, at the 
same time, that there never could be hearty concord 



l8 - Hicron. Epist. xxxviii. 



OF UNIVERSALISM. 



211 



between the faithful and the heretics. He embraced 
this opportunity, likewise, to lay before Theophilus a 
history of the disturbance, to defend the ordination 
of his brother, and to exonerate himself from that 
charge of inconsistency which John had urged against 
him for having translated the works of Origen that he 
now condemned. 19 

Perhaps, no man, in that age, possessed means 
more efficient for diffusing his prejudices, than Jerome. 
From his narrow and uncouth cell at Bethlehem, he 
could easily excite disaffection or distrust, in the 
remotest parts of Christendom. He maintained an 
extensive correspondence ; the fame of his knowledge 
procured him a welcome introduction wherever he 
sought assistance ; and his penetrating discernment 
readily distinguished those who would prove most 
useful as coadjutors. The celebrated Augustine, now 
bishop of Hippo in Africa, a hundred and fifty miles 
west of Carthage, was too eminent for him to over- 
look ; and he had already addressed him a letter, 
with the information that Origen's works abounded 
with errors. 20 But that honest and independent man 
could never be engaged in his violent measures, 
though he was, in reality, much farther from Origen's 
sentiments than Jerome himself. 

VIII. Meanwhile, Rufinus had bidden a final adieu 
to his friends in Palestine, and had sailed, in company 
with his patroness, for his native Italy. But, before 
his departure, a seeming reconciliation was effected 
between him and Jerome ; and in their last interview 



19, Hieron. Epist. xxxix. ad Theophilum. 
nian. Lib. ii. cap. 4, Sect. i. § 14. 



20 - Huet. Orige- 



212 



THE ANCIENT HISTORY 



they pledged themselves to refrain from their mutual 
hostilities, 21 

When he arrived with Melania at Rome, intent on 
diffusing his sentiments and partialities, and urged by 
Macarius, a civil officer of the city, he translated into 
Latin the first book of Pamphilus's and Eusebius's 
Apology jor Origen, together with Origen's famous 
books Of Principles, and soon published them for 
the benefit of the western Christians. To these 
works he affixed Prefaces and a Tract of his own ; 
in which he apprized the public that, in the books 
Of Principles, he had omitted or amended the many 
erroneous representations, concerning the trinity, which 
he supposed had been inserted or corrupted by the 
heretics. The other notions, he intimates, were pre- 
served unaltered. 22 Unhappily, however, he could 
not suppress a secret personal resentment, but em- 
braced this opportunity to allude to a certain accom- 
plished brother, who had ranked Origen next to the 
Apostles, and whose commendations of him had 
excited a general desire to obtain his works : who 
had already published in Latin above seventy of his 
Homilies, and who had promised to translate still 
more. This brother was, of course, Jerome ; and the 
allusion was intended to remind the Jew of his incon- 
stancy, and to imply to the rest that he still con- 
tinued, as he once had been, a follower of Origen. 
Nor did Rufinus stop here ; his smothered enmity 
broke out in a remark, that there were authors who, 

21 * Hieron. Epist. xlii. vol. 66. ad Rufinum, p. 348. 22, Rufini 
Praefat. in Lib. Peri Archon, inter Origenis Opp. Tom. i. Edit. 
Delarue. 



OF UNIVERSALISM. 



213 



having stolen all their works out of Origen, afterwards 
reproached their master, in order to conceal their own 
plagiarisms, by deterring the world from reading the 
original. 23 These sly insinuations, though veiled 
under the language of respect and esteem, could not 
escape the notice, nor elude the understanding, of 
Jerome's western friends ; and it was easily foreseen 
that the reconciliation, so lately confirmed in Pales- 
tine, must soon share the common fate of attempts at 
renewing old friendships when once violated with 
insult. 

The books Of Principles, though they contained, 
besides Universalism, the doctrine of pre-existence 

and other novel opinions, were readily 
a. d. 397, received by many at Rome, and attached 
— 398. a number of priests, monks and common 

Christians to Origen. 24 Others, how- 
ever, rose in opposition ; and Marcella. a lady of 
influence, with whom Jerome maintained a corres- 
pondence, appears to have taken the lead in fixing 
the stigma of heresy on the gathering party of Ori- 
genists. Assisted by Vincentius, who had returned 
from Bethlehem, and seconded by the numerous and 
powerful friends of Jerome, she soon succeeded in 
rousing and directing the public indignation. 25 It is 
probable, however, that even Jerome's own friends 
did not consider the books Of Principles very hereti- 
cal, as they stood in the translation ; 26 and the more 

23 - Ditto. And Rufini Lib. De Adulterat. Origenis Librorum. 

24, Hieron. Epist. xcvi. vel. 16 ad Principium. p. 782. 

25 - Ditto. 26 - Jerome's friends, Pammachius and Oceanus 
(Epist. xl. vel. 64.) inter Hieronymi (Opp. Tom. iv.) say they 
have found in Rufinus's translation of the books Of Principles, 



I 



214 



THE ANCIENT HISTORY 



moderate and impartial discovered nothing alarming 
in the late publications, if we may judge from the 
conduct of Pope Siricius : It was one of the last acts of 
his life, to grant letters of recommendation to Rufinus, 
who was preparing to proceed, after an absence of 
twenty-five years, to his native city of Aquileia. 27 

IX. Jerome at length received, with 
a. d. 398, surprise, an account sent from Italy, of 
— 399. the artful procedure of Rufinus ; but, 
with a moderation unusual for him, he 
wrote to his false friend in terms of manly and candid 
expostulation, entreating him, as a brother, to offer no 
more abuse, and to regard their parting conciliation. 28 
As he was, however, accused of inconsistency in his 
treatment of Origen, not by Rufinus alone, but by 
many others at Rome, at Alexandria, and indeed 
throughout Christendom, he composed a formal ex- 
planation of the praises he had formerly bestowed 
upon that father, and sent it to his Roman friends. I 
have, indeed, commended him, said he, as an able 
interpreter, but not as a correct dogmatist ; I have 
admired his genius, without approving his doctrine. 
Have I ever adopted his detestable representations 
concerning the trinity, or concerning the resurrection ? 
Have I not, on the contrary, carefully omitted them 
in my translations ? If people would know my sen- 
timents, let them read my Commentaries on Ejihe- 
sians, and on Ecclesiastes. where I have uniformly 

many things not so very orthodox ; still they suspect that Rufinus 
had omitted whatever would more plainly expose Origen's impi- 
ety ; and therefore they request Jerome to send them a correct 
translation. 27 Huet. Origenian. Lib. ii. cap. 4. Sect. i. § 16. 
2S - Hicron. Epist. xlii. 



OF UNIVERSALISM. 



215 



contradicted his opinions. I certainly never followed 
his notions ; or if I have, yet now I repent. And 
let others imitate this my example ; " let us all be 
" converted to God, Let us not wait the repentance 
" of the devil ; for vain is the presumption that ex- 
" tends into the abyss of hell. It is in this world, 
" that life must be sought, or lost." 29 In the conclu- 
sion, he exposed the absurdity of Rufinus's pretence 
that Origen's works had been interpolated ; and with 
a daring assurance, denied that the Apology for 
Origen was written by Pamphilus. At the same 
time, he also sent to Rome, at the request of his 
friends, an accurate version of the books Of Princi- 
ples, in order, as he said, to expose the mistranslations 
of his rival, 30 

By the passage just quoted from his Defence, we 
discover that he was now disposed to deny a Restora- 
tion from hell, which he had formerly asserted. Still, 
it appears, he did not account that notion one of the 
heinous, alarming errors in question, as is manifest 
from his referring to his Commentaries on Ephesians 
in proof that he had uniformly contradicted them; for 
those Commentaries, though they opposed some other 
tenets ascribed to Origen, abounded, as we have seen, 
with the fullest declarations of Universalism, What 
he now treated as the great, detestable errors of his 
master, may be learned from the following passage in 
the same Defence : " I acknowledge that Origen 
" erred in certain things : that his opinion was wrong 
'•'concerning the Son, and worse concerning the Holy 

29 - Hieron. Epist. xli. vel. 65. ad Pammach. ct Oceanum, p. 345. 

30 - Ditto, p. 348. 



v 



216 



THE ANCIENT HISTORY 



" Ghost ; that he impiously supposed that our souls 
"fell from heaven ; that he acknowledged the resur- 
rection only in words, denying it in reality; and 
" that he held that in future ages, after one universal 
"restitution, Gabriel would at length become what 
"the devil now is, Paul what Caiaphas, and virgins 
"what prostitutes are. 31 When you have rejected 
" these errors, you may read him with safety." 32 

X, Jerome and Epiphanius now began to discover, 
in the disposition of the Alexandrian bishop, a favor- 
able change which they had long sought to procure. 
Flattery and exhortation had been spent upon him in 
vain : he had still inclined to the side of John. But, 
what no persuasion could effect, self-interest and re- 
venge speedily accomplished. Theophilus had been, 
for some time, involved in a contention with his 
Egyptian monks, the smaller, more ignorant, and 
therefore the more turbulent part of whom, hated 
the name of Origen, because his doctrine was so 
directly opposed to their own gross notion, that Deity 
possessed a body like man's.* These Anthropomor- 

31. u — et p 0s t mu lta ssecula atque unam omnium restitutionem, 
" idipsum fore Gabrielem quod Diabolum, Paulum quod Caia- 
"pham, virgines quod prostibulas. " In his Epist. xxxvi. ad 
Vigilantium, written about this time, Jerome acknowledges that 
Origen " erred concerning the state of the soul. [i. e. Pre-exist- 
"ence,] and the repentance of the devil; and what is of more 
" importance than these, that the Son of God and the Holy Ghost, 
"he pronounced, in his Commentaries on Isaiah, to be Sera- 
phim." p. 276. Afterwards, Jerome reproaches Vigilantius for 
having misinterpreted the vision of the mountain, in Daniel ii, 
and insultingly tells him to repent "if, indeed, this impiety can 
"be forgiven you; and then you may obtain pardon when, ac- 
" cording to the error of Origen, the devil shall obtain it ; who 
"was never guilty of worse blasphemy than yours." p. 278. 

32 - Hieron. Epist. xli. p. 345. 

* Socratis Hist. Eccl. Lib. vi. cap. 7. 



OF UNIVERSALIS*!. 



217 



phites, so called, were roused to open insurrection by- 
one of their bishop's late addresses, in which he had 
freely reproached their error ; and, assembling from 
various parts of Egypt, they crowded to Alexandria 
with the intention of murdering him. To save his 
life, Theophilus deceived the fierce assailants into a 
persuasion that he himself was converted to their 
belief ; and promising, at their instance, to condemn 
the works of their great adversary, Origen, he dis- 
missed them in peace. Meanwhile, the aged Isido- 
rus, whom he had always honored, and whom he had 
lately attempted to place in the vacant bishopric of 
Constantinople, had incurred his dangerous displeas- 
ure, by refusing to countenance his unjust and rapa- 
cious schemes. Some of the Origenist monks of 
Nitria, also, where Isidorus sought and obtained 
refuge, fell under his resentment. Theophilus inva- 
ded their quiet retreat, seized and tortured those who 
refused to deliver up Isidorus, burnt their monasteries, 
and, bethinking himself of an easier way to satiate 
his baffled vengeance, denounced them to the fierce 
Anthropomorphites as Origenists. Sacrificing every 
thing to his wrath, he now determined to fulfil his 
late extorted promise ; and, siding with the more 
dilatory Jerome and Epiphanius, he proceeded to the 
hazardous measure of engaging the church in his 

quarrel. Accordingly, he called a synod 
a. d. 399. of the neighboring bishops at Alexandria, 

and procured a decree, remarkable for 
being the first of its kind, condemning Origen, and 
anathematizing all who should approve his works. 
He dared not arraign the whole multitude of offend- 

19 



218 



?HE ANCIENT HISTORY 



ers ; bat three of them, called the tall brethren, were 
condemned by name, under the pretence of their 
holding false doctrines, though neither they nor any 
of their party were present. Theophilus then con- 
trived to obtain, from the governor of Egypt, author- 
ity to drive the excommunicated out of the province • 
and, taking a band of soldiers, marched again for the 
famous retreat of the Origenists. 33 

The cells and monasteries of Nitria clustered along 
two parallel but distant chains of naked hills, and 
were thinly scattered, perhaps, in the deep and arid 
waste that lay between. From the summits of the 
north-eastern ridge, the spectator surveyed, with secret 
horror, an inanimate world of eternal barrenness and 
solitude, glowing beneath the scorching firmament. 
In whatever direction he turned, the great Desert of 
Lybia stretched away, over uneven plains and preci- 
pices, to the verge of the horizon, To the south- 
west, at the distance of ten or a dozen miles, stood 
the opposite ridge ; nearer, lay before him the w 7 ide 
valley of sand, furrowed through w 7 ith deep gorges, 
and extending far off to the north-west and south- 
east ; and below him, at the foot of the precipices on 
w 7 hich he stood, his eyes rested on the small crusted 
lakes of natron, surrounded by shrubs and reeds, the 
only contrast to the universal desolation, 34 All was 
motionless silence ; except when the beasts and birds 
of the desert came to allay their burning thirst, or 

33 . In the account of Theophilus, I follow Huet (Origenian. 
Lib. ii. cap. 4. sect. ii. § 1, 2, 3,) and Fleur\- (Eccl. Hist. Book 
xxi. chap. 10, 1*2.) 34 - Sonnini's Travels in Upper and Lower 
Egypt, chap. 27, 28, 29. 



OF UNIVERSALISM, 



219 



when the monks swarmed forth from their cells at the 
appointed hours of social devotion. 

Into this abode of mortification and religious mus- 
ing, Theophilus entered, with his troop, in the dead 
of night, and drove away the bishop of the moun- 
tain ; but unable to discover his intended victims, who 
had been secreted, he burnt their cells, pillaged the 
monasteries, and then set out on his retreat. Re- 
turned to Alexandria, he encountered a general indig- 
nation and horror, which the news of his cruelty and 
sacrilege soon roused. The Origenists, however, took 
warning, and fled to other countries. Isidorus and 
about three hundred of his brethren sought the pro- 
tection of John in Palestine, and retired, the larger 
part of them, to the palm-groves around Scythopolis? 
nearly seventy miles northward from Jerusalem. But 
Theophilus, with the exterminating zeal of a true foe, 
wrote immediately to the bishops of that province, 
forgiving, on the ground of ignorance, their first recep- 
tion of the condemned, but requiring them, for the 
future, to exclude the refugees, from every church. 
It is mortifying to relate, that John of Jerusalem was 
overcome by this sudden change in the powerful 
patron to whom he had referred his cause ; and that 
he appears to have wanted the resolution to defend 
his guests, and the courage to disobey the Egyptian 
primate's orders. 35 

Great were the mutual congratulations of Theophi- 
lus, Epiphanius and Jerome, on these decisive meas- 
ures. They informed each other, in their bombastic 

35 - Huetii Origenian. Lib. ii. cap. 4. Sect, ii, § 3, Fleury's Eccl. 
Hist. Book x$:i. chap, 12, 



220 



THE ANCIENT HISTORY 



letters, that the snake of Origenism was now severed 
and disembowelled by the evangelical sword, that the 
host of Amalek was destroyed, and the banner of the 
cross erected on the altars of the Alexandrian church. 
Theophilus sent letters to Rome, to Cyprus, and to 
Constantinople, proclaiming his late measures, and 
exhorting the respective bishops to follow his exam- 
ple. Accordingly, Anastasius, the new Pope, who 
had succeeded Siricius at Rome, readily 
a. d. 400. gratified the numerous partisans of Je- 
rome in that city, by issuing a decree 
which was received through all the West, condemn- 
ing the works of Origen ; and Epiphanius, soon after- 
wards, convened a synod of his bishops in Cyprus, 
and procured from them a like sentence. But Chrys- 
ostom, who now held the episcopal chair of Constan- 
tinople, delayed all notice of the Egyptian prelate's 
recommendation, 36 and thereby involved himself in a 
scene of troubles that closed only with his life. 

XL We have passed, with barely a hasty notice, 
over the decree of the Roman pontiff, and the two 
synods of Alexandria and Cyprus, against Origen and 
his works. They constitute, however, an important 
event in the history of Universalism, being the first 
public acts of the church which at all affected that 
sentiment ; and it is worth the while to pause and 
ascertain the particular points of doctrine which were 
then condemned. All the formal records of those 
proceedings have long since perished ; but, from 
cotemporary authority, we learn that the tenet, which 



36 * Huet. Origenian, Lib. ii. cap. 4. Sect. ii. § 5. et Sect. i. § 19, 



OF UNIVERSALISM, 



221 



gave most offence in the Alexandrian synod, was 
this : " that as Christ was crucified in our world for 
" the redemption of mankind, so he would taste 
" death, in the eternal state, for the salvation of the 
" devil." 37 This two-fold death of Christ, though 
sometimes intimated by Origen, was by no means one 
of his fixed opinions ; and it can have been only from 
an ungenerous zeal to take the utmost advantage of 
his suggestions, that it was inserted in the present 
charge. It also appears, that in addition to this par- 
ticular, his doctrine of ' the salvation of the devil and 
his angels, 5 was expressly condemned, in some of 
these public decrees, either at Alexandria, Cyprus or 
Rome ; and likewise another notion, which cannot, 
with so much justice, be ascribed to him, 6 that in the 
distant ages of eternity, the blessed in heaven will, by 
degrees, relapse into sin, and descend into the regions 
of woe, while, on the other hand, the damned will 
rise to the mansions of purity and joy : thus consti- 
tuting, by perpetual revolutions, a ceaseless alterna- 
tion of happiness and misery.' 38 These, we are 
informed, were the principal errors now condemned ; 
and they were probably alleged to justify the sentence 
which was passed, forbidding his works to be read, 
and placing him on the list of heretics. But, what is 
remarkable, it is certain that his doctrine of the salva- 
tion of all mankind, was not condemned, and that 
some of the orthodox continued to avow it with im- 
punity. 39 

S7 - Sulpitii Severi Dialog, i. cap. 3. I quote from G. Bulli De- 
fens. Fid. NicsenoB cap. ix. § 23. 38 - Augustinus De Civ. Dei, 
Lib. xxi. cap. 17. 

39 - Augustine De (Civitate Dei Lib. xxi. cap. 17.), about twenty 

19* 



222 



THE ANCIENT HISTORY 



The prohibition of his writings, and the angry 
indignity with which his name was treated, were 
regarded by the more dispassionate throughout all 
Christendom, as unnecessarily severe ; but, as the 
authoritative acts had been regularly passed, the 
orthodox generally acquiesced, though with reluc- 
tance, reserve, and some exceptions. 40 

XII. When the persecuted Origenists 
a. d. 400, who had fled to Palestine from the rage 
to 403. of Theophilus, learned that he had sent 
a deputation against them to Constan- 
tinople, they likewise proceeded thither to defend 
themselves, and to seek an asylum under the strong 
protection of the bishop of that city, the celebrated 
Chrysostom. Fifty aged men, among whom were 
Isidorus and the three tall brethren, came and pre- 
sented themselves before him ; and such was the 
wretchedness of their appearance that Chrysostom, 
it is said, melted into tears at the sight. He gave 
them the desired protection, till their cause should be 
heard ; and wrote immediately to Theophilus in their 
behalf. But his interference was haughtily resented, 
and drew upon him a long and fierce persecution, the 
particulars of which have no direct relation to the 

years afterwards, reasons with those merciful "brethren among the 
orthodox, who held the salvation of all mankind. He says they 
urged the superior benevolence of their doctrine as a proof of its 
truth ; and he exposes their inconsistency in using this argument, 
by daring them to extend it, like Origen, to the salvation of the 
devil and his angels. For this, adds he, the church has con- 
demned him ', and they, of course, dare not go to the same 
extremity. 

40 - Huet. Origenian. Lib. ii. cap. 4. Sect. ii. § 4. 12. Chrysos- 
tom, Augustine, Sulpitius Severus, Vincentius Lirinensis, &c. 
were favorably disposed towards the memory, though not the 
doctrine, of Origen. 



OF UNIVERSALISM. 



223 



subject of this history. We may only mention, that 
the Origenists, having formally disavowed all hereti- 
cal doctrines, continued to enjoy his countenance, as 
well as that of the empress Eudoxia ; and were thus 
emboldened to accuse their bishop before the tribunal 
of the emperor Arcadius. Upon this, Epiphanius 
hastened from Cyprus to Constantinople ; and, awhile 
afterwards, the undaunted Theophilus arrived, in obe- 
dience to the imperial summons, attended, however, 
by a host of bishops, from Egypt. Their vengeance 
was directed not so much against the Origenists as 
against Chrysostom, That ready engine of mischief, 
a synod, was formed ; but when the members were 
gathered, they immediately separated in two bodies, 
and met in different places : those who hated the 
bishop of Constantinople, in the suburbs ; and those 
who favored him, in the city. Among his friends, 
Palladius of Galatia, now bishop of Helenopolis in 
Bithynia, seems to have taken a distinguished part ; 
and could a majority have availed against intrigue and 
power, Chrysostom had triumphed. But he sunk, at 
length, with all his influence, under the combined 
assaults of the Alexandrian party, the rage of the 
insulted empress Eudoxia, and the obsequious edicts 
of the timid Arcadius : and in the year 403, he was 
wickedly deposed and banished, together with some 
of his adherents. But in the mean time, the relent- 
ing Epiphanius had died on his voyage back to Cy- 
prus ; and Isidorus and the three tall brethren had 
closed their lives, in the city, amidst the cruel storm 
which their great and injured patron had brought 
upon himself. The objects of his hatred being thus 



224 



THE ANCIENT HISTORY 



removed, Theophilus was easily reconciled to the rest 
of the Origenists, and finally received them into his 
favor. 41 

XIII. The Alexandrian bishop had 
a. d. 401, not confined his exertions, all this time, 
to 404, to the city of Constantinople. While 
his party was managing his contest there, 
he himself was often engaged at home, rousing the 
indignation of the Egyptian Christians against Ori- 
gen's name and doctrine. It was his practice to pub- 
lish, annually, a General or Paschal Epistle to his 
churches; and in that of the year 401, his newly 
adopted zeal gave itself full utterance. He inveighed, 
with much bitterness, against Origen's heresies, which 
he comprised in the following particulars : that the 
kingdom of Christ would finally end, and the devil 
return to his pristine glory, and become subject to the 
Father ; that the blessed in heaven may fall away ; 
that Christ is to be crucified in the invisible world, for 
the demons and wicked angels ; that the bodies of 
the saints, after the resurrection, will at length decay 
and become extinct ; that the Son is not to be ad- 
dressed in prayer ; that magic is not sinful ; and that 
marriage is dishonorable, being occasioned by our 
guilty connexion with the body, 43 

In the next year's Epistle, Theophilus resumed the 
unfinished topic, and entered again upon his conflict 
with the " Hydra of Origenism." The errors he now 

41 - Huetii Origenian. Lib. ii. cap. 4. Sect. ii. § 11, 12, 13. And 
Fleury's Eccl. Hist. Book xxi. chap. 23—32. 42 - Theophili 
Paschal. Lib. ii. (properly i.) inter Hieronymi Opp. Tom. iv. Part 
ii. For the date and order of these books, see Du Pin, Cave, 
Fleury, &c. 



OF UNIVERSALISM. 



225 



selected as the points of his attack, were, that human 
souls pre-existed, but for their transgressions were 
doomed to this world, which was formed for their 
reception ; that the sun, moon and stars are anima- 
ted ; that our fleshly bodies are not to rise ; that the 
dignitaries of the angelic world were not created such, 
but rose from the original equality of souls to their 
present elevations, by means of their own self-im- 
provement ; that the Holy Ghost does not operate on 
irrational animals ; that the immediate providence of 
God extends only to things in heaven ; that Christ is 
not the supreme God ; that all souls came from one 
common and uniform mass of mind ; that the soul 
which Christ assumed was one with his divine nature, 
just as he is one with the Father; and that God could 
govern no more creatures than he has made, so that 
his power is finite, 43 We have another of his annual 
Epistles, written in the year 404. Here, his zeal had 
begun to abate ; but amidst a chaos of general and 
indefinite exhortation, there are some incidental at- 
tacks upon Origen's notion of the condemnation of 
souls to earthly bodies. 44 

These three Epistles were afterwards translated by 
Jerome, for the use of the Latin Christians ; and with 
them several others, which have since perished. 

XIV. While thus Theophilus was pur- 
a. d. 400, suing his quarrel in Constantinople, and 
to 404, at the same time, sounding the alarm in 
Egypt, against the newly denominated 
heresy, the storm which had arisen in Italy continued 

43 - Theophili Paschal. Lib. i. (properly ii.) 44 - Theophili 
Paschal. Lib. iii. 



226 



THE ANCIENT HISTORY 



without abatement. Soon after the passing of the 
decree, in A. D. 400, against Origen's works, Pope 
Anastasius cited Rufinus to appear before him, on a 
charge of heresy. But the latter, instead of leaving 
his friends at Aquileia, sent to the pontiff a formal 
Apology , or statement of his faith and conduct ; pro- 
fessing his hearty assent to the creeds of the churches 
at Rome, Alexandria, Jerusalem and Aquileia ; and 
declaring his belief in the trinity, in the resurrection of 
this very flesh, in a future judgement, and in the end- 
less punishment of the devil, of all his angels, and of 
wicked men, particularly , says he, " of those ivho 
" slander their brethren. And whoever denies this, 
" let eternal fire be his portion, that he may feel what 
" he denies." 45 The same doctrine he also asserted 
in general terms, but with much explicitness, in his 
Treatise on the Apostles' Creed ; 46 and we have no 
reason to doubt his sincerity. The Italian bishops, 
it seems, were generally satisfied : 47 but Anastasius, 
either suspecting dissimulation, or determined at all 
events to crush the obnoxious translator, passed upon 
him the dread sentence of excommunication. This 
was in A. D. 401. The Pope afterwards refused, 
peremptorily, to restore him to fellowship, notwith- 
standing a friendly remonstrance that he received, the 
next year, with much seeming respect, from John of 
Jerusalem. 48 

During all these transactions, Rufinus was solacing 

45 Rufini ad Anastasium Apologia, inter Hieron. Opp. Tom. v. 
p. 259. 46 - Rufini Symbol urn, inter Hieron. Opp. Tom. v. pp. 
127 — 150. N. B. See the preceding Chap. Sect. xx. note 80. 
47 - Hieron. Apol. adv. Rufin. Lib. hi. p. 453. 4S - Huetii Ori- 
genian. Lib. ii. cap. 4, Sect. i. § 20. 



OF UNIVERSALISM. 



227 



himself with secret revenge, by circulating, in private, 
a work which he had composed to defend his own 
conduct, to excuse Origen, but especially to expose 
Jerome. To this production, the partial resentment of 
the church has since affixed the hostile name of Invec- 
tive, instead of the original and more peaceful title of 
Apology. Paulinianus, then residing in Italy, con- 
trived to obtain sight of it ; and, having secretly tran- 
scribed copious extracts, sent them to his brother at 
Bethlehem. From these, Jerome had the vexation to 
discover that the Defence he had addressed, a few 
years before, to his friends at Rome, was likely to be 
turned back, with effect, against himself. He saw 
that Rufinus had succeeded in exposing much incon- 
sistency, and some prevarication, in the explanations, 
there given, concerning his former and present treat- 
ment of Origen. But, what was more perplexing, a 
fatal advantage had been taken of his favorite Com- 
mentaries on Ejphesians and Ecclesiast.es.. From 
these very works, to which Jerome had expressly 
referred as a clear delineation of his views, Rufinus 
had now selected ample quotations that taught, in the 
fullest manner, the several doctrines of the resurrec- 
tion of aerial instead of fleshly bodies, pre-existence, 
and the universal restoration, not only of mankind, but 
also of the devil and his angels. Particular expres- 
sions had, moreover, been pointed out, which seemed 
to intimate a perpetual rotation of happiness and mis- 
ery, the eventual return of all intellectual creatures 
into one order or grade of being, and the animation of 
those glorious bodies, the sun, the moon and stars. 



228 



THE ANCIENT HISTORY 



" It is well, " said his exulting accuser, " for such as 
you to condemn Origen." 49 

XV. Disturbed, but not dismayed, by this unex- 
pected attack, Jerome sat down angrily to the com- 
position of his Apology against Rufinus : replying 
haughtily, and sometimes disingenuously, to the nume- 
rous charges against his conduct, recriminating on his 
antagonist for the same acts which he excused in 
himself, and attempting by the most groundless in* 
sinuations to render him suspected of evasion in his 
late Apology to Anastasius. We have little concern, 
however, except with what relates to Universalism. 
To extricate himself from the awkward predicament 
in which he was placed by the unfortunate reference 
to his Commentaries on Ephesians and Ecclesiastes, 
he resorted to the desperate plea, that as the passages 
containing the doctrines of an aerial resurrection, pre- 
existence, and universal restoration, were abridged by 
him from Origen and other authors, he was not res- 
ponsible for the sentiments. The truth was, he had 
incorporated them into his own work, without a mark 
of censure, and without giving the original writers as 
his authority. 50 

That he would now be understood to deny the sal- 
vation of the devil and of the damned, is certain ; and 
he even complained that upon this, as well as on other 
points, Rufinus had not been sufficiently explicit in his 
Apology to the Roman pontiff. 51 But it is remarka- 

49 - Hieron. Apolog. adv. Rufinum Lib. i. and ii. Tom. iv. Je- 
rome had not yet seen Rufinus ; s Invective entire, but only the 
extracts which Paulinianus had sent him. What these were we 
can learn only by Jerome's answer. 50 - Ditto. 51 - Ditto. Lib. 
ii. p. 393. 



OF UNIVERSALISM. 



229 



ble that he still avoided reckoning it among the impor- 
tant errors of Origen, and that he invariably passed it 
over, when he referred to them ; as in the following 
catalogue : " I point out to you, in Origen's works," 
said he to Rufinus, " many evil things, and particu- 
" larly these heresies : that the Son and Holy Spirit 
" are subordinate ; that there are innumerable worlds 
" succeeding each other to all eternity ; that angels 
" were changed into human souls ; that Christ's hu- 
u man soul existed before it was born of Mary ; and 
" that it was this which thought it no robbery to be 
" equal with God, seeing it was in the form of God, 
" yet humbled itself, and took the form of a servant ; 
" that in the resurrection our bodies will be aerial, 
" without members, and that they will eventually 
" vanish into nothing ; that in the universal restitu- 
" tion, the celestial powers and the infernal spirits, 
" together with the souls of all mankind, will be re- 
" duced into one order or rank of beings ; and that 
" from this uniform state of equality they will again 
" diverge, as formerly, holding various courses, until 
" at length some, falling into sin, shall be born once 
" more, into a mortal world, with human bodies. So 
" that we, who are now men, may fear hereafter to be 
" women ; and they who are now virgins, to be, then, 
" prostitutes. These heresies I point out in Origen's 
"works ; do you now show me in what work of his 
" you can find the contrary." 52 

This Apology, abounding in ridicule and sarcasm, 
was finished, in two books, and sent to Italy, some 

62 - Ditto. Lib. ii. p. 403. See also Lib. i. pp. 355, 371. and Lib, 
ii. p. 407. And Lib. iii. p. 44L 

20 



230 



THE ANCIENT HISTORY 



time in the year 403, 53 while Rufinus was still flatter- 
ing himself that the secret of his performance had not 
transpired. Stung into madness by the lampoons, the 
insults and the misrepresentations of his opponent, 
Rufinus immediately sent to Bethlehem the whole of 
his Invective, accompanied with a letter threatening 
prosecution, and perhaps death. Upon this, Jerome 
added to his Apology a third book, written in a style 
which showed that he would not be outdone in rage 
nor in vulvar abuse. Though too much engrossed, 
by other matters, to pay particular attention to the 
old topic of Origen's errors, he nevertheless repeated 
his attacks on the notion, that all rational creatures 
will eventually return to one common grade of being, 
and that they may afterwards relapse, and renew their 
present diversity. 54 It is remarkable, that he seemed 
almost to concede, notwithstanding his perverse tem- 
per, that he had once followed Origen too far. 55 

XVI. With this hot altercation, and 
A. d. 404. w T ith the simultaneous triumph of The- 
ophilus, subsided, for the present, the 
public contest in the church, concerning Origenism. 
Its professors were every where obliged to conceal 
their belief ; and their doctrine was generally regard- 
ed as heretical, at least as dangerous to the peace of 
Christendom. Some of its particulars, however, were 
still avowed without censure, when no partiality to- 

53 - Huet, Du Pin, &c. say in A. D. 402 ; but as Jerome men- 
tions Anastasius's Letter to John of Jerusalem (Lib. ii. p. 405,) 
which could not have reached Palestine before the close of the 
year 402, or beginning of 403, I have given Jerome's Apology 
the later date. 54< Apolog. Lib. iii. p. 441. 55 - Ditto, pp. 445, 
447, 



OF UNIVERSALISM. 



231 



wards the sect was suspected. But Universalism, 
having been condemned in one of its points, received 
a check from which it never entirely recovered in the 
catholic church. 

We may pronounce it probable that the doctrine of 
the salvation of the devil and his angels, would, for 
this time, have escaped condemnation and perhaps 
reproach, had it not been found in company with 
other offensive tenets. As to the general character of 
the violent proceedings now described, it is too mani- 
fest that they deserve the brand of personal quarrels, 
rather than the honorable appellation of a contest for 
the truth. Of the three chief agents, Epiphanius, an 
honest but credulous and bigoted man, may indeed 
be supposed to have acted, in a great measure, from 
principle, as he had long been distinguished for zeal 
against Origenism. But Theophilus engaged in the 
quarrel through policy and grudge, and prosecuted it 
for private revenge ; and we must pass nearly the 
same judgement on the motives of Jerome. Both 
had formeily been admirers of Origen ; and both, 
after the strife was past, betrayed again, though with 
caution, their partiality for his works. 



CHAPTER VIII. 



[From A. D. 404, to A. D. 500.] 

I. After two or three centuries of de- 
a. d. 405, cay. the unwieldy mass of the Roman 
empire had now fallen into two parts, by 
a permanent separation of the East from the West. 
Over these divisions, the innocent but effeminate sons 
of Theodosius the Great enjoyed the name of sover- 
eignty, while their feeble hands, unable to sway the 
sceptre, resigned to their favorites and ministers the 
actual exercise of authority. Arcadius, the eastern 
emperor, sat on his father's throne in Constantinople \ 
his younger brother, Honorius, held the western court 
at Ravenna in Italy. Rome, the eternal city, the 
boasted mistress of the world, was no longer honored 
with the empty compliment of the imperial residence. 
Patriotism, courage, and even bodily strength, had, to 
a great degree, forsaken a people dispirited by ages of 
despotism, corrupted by its vices, and enervated by 
luxury and sloth. Throughout the East, internal dis- 
orders agitated the public tranquillity, and open rebel- 
lion alarmed the feeble administration. In the West, 
all hearts were trembling at the portentious movements 
of the fierce barbarians of the North, who hovered on 
the frontiers of Greece and Italy, and threatened, not 
in vain, to pour their forces over the beautiful territo- 



OF UNIVERSALISM. 



233 



ries into the ancient seat of empire. Already had 
they made an alarming incursion, from which they 
were turned back partly by force of arms, and partly 
by gold ; and they waited but the preparation of four 
or five years for their more successful return, when 
Rome itself was to be taken and sacked by Alaric at 
the head of his Goths. 

In this period of terror and disorder, the church 
sympathized, of course, in the perils and fears of the 
state, with which she was so intimately connected : 
but her worldly power naturally- increased in propor- 
tion as the civil establishment grew weaker and more 
in need of her assistance. The public dangers never 
made her, for a moment, lose sight of the favorite ob- 
ject of ambition, towards which she advanced with 
the slow but fatal steadiness of the laws of nature. 
Nor did she withdraw her attention from her more 
domestic concerns. Among other employments, her 
clergy now found a grateful exercise for their zeal and 
violence, in the overthrow of the last monuments of 
heathenism, and in the suppression of the rebellious 
sects among themselves. The affair of the Origenists 
had been, to all appearance, successfully despatched ; 
but, in Africa, a very numerous and troublesome party 
of orthodox believers, the Donatists, stood out, with 
peculiar obstinacy, against all the invitations and all 
the threatenings of the church. In the course of 
three years, as many councils had assembled at Car- 
thage, under the influence of the celebrated Augus- 
tine, with the design of compelling them to return to 
the catholic communion : from which they had sepa- 
rated, in an electioneering quarrel, nearly a century 
20* 



234 



THE ANCIENT HISTORY 



before. But these measures though seconded by the 
severe edicts of Honorius, had little success ; the 
schismatics, for the most part, remained stubborn, and 
their savage partizans continued to carry sword and 
fire through the province. 

II. The political commotions and ee- 
a. d. 405, clesiastical disturbances of the time, ope- 
to 412. rated, undoubtedly, to divert the public 
attention from the subject of Origenism, 
and to afford repose to the obnoxious party. The 
clamour of the late contest seems to have sunk, at 
once, into silence ; and as the impression was almost 
universal that the quarrel had been, in a great measure, 
personal, that it had been marked with unwarrantable 
violence, and pursued too far, 1 its victims were regard- 
ed with less rigor than was usual in cases of adjudged 
heresy. Rufinus appears to have enjoyed, at Aquileia, 
the patronage of his own bishop, 2 and the countenance, 
perhaps, of other dignitaries in the Italian churches. 3 
He spent the remainder of his life, unmolested, in com- 
posing Commentaries on the Scriptures, and in trans- 
lating Origen and other Greek writers ; till, in A. D. 
409, he fled, at the approach of the northern barbari- 
ans, and retired into Sicily, where he died the next 
year. Melania, his noble and faithful patroness, ac- 
companied him, with a numerous train, to Sicily. 

The banishment of Chrysostom roused the grief and indigna- 
tion of a numerous party in the East, and of all the West. Unre- 
mitted efforts were made for his recall, hut he died in the mean 
time ; and though it had been resolved to arraign Theopbilus 
before a General Council, the affair was dropped. 2 - He trans- 
lated Eusebius's Eccl. History at the request of Chromatins, 
bishop of Aquileia. 3 - Hieron. Apolog. adv. Rufin. Lib. iii. p. 
453. 



OF UNIVERS A.L1SM. 



235 



Proceeding thence to Africa, where she was compli- 
mented by Augustine, she pursued her way into Pal- 
estine. Her death soon followed, at Jerusalem, the 
scene of her former munificence; and, notwithstanding 
her connexion with the Origenists, she was honored 
with the title of saint, and her name inserted in the pub- 
lic martyrologias. 4 John of Jerusalem was, the mean- 
while, strongly suspected of retaining a secret par- 
tiality for the proscribed doctrines ; but he conducted 
so warily, as to enjoy his bishopric in quiet; and even 
his implacable neighbor, Jerome, could find no pre- 
tence for renewing the quarrel. 5 Evagrius Ponticus, 
having been overlooked in the rage of Theophilus, 
died, probably about this time, in some undisturbed 
retreat among the Egyptian monasteries ; but Palla- 
dius of Gallatia, late bishop of Helenopolis, was 
suffering in banishment, not for his Origenism, but 
for his adherence to the exiled Chrysostom. He w r as 
afterwards recalled, however, and appointed over the 
church of Aspora, in his native province. 6 Theophi- 
lus, himself, now provoked the abhorrence of such 
as remembered his former violence and solemn pro- 
hibitions, by amusing his leisure with the perusal of 
Origen's works ; and he openly asserted, as his justi- 
fication, that, among some thorns which they contain- 
ed, he found many beautiful and precious flowers. 
He had, however, written a large volume against 

4 - Fleury's Eccl. Hist. Book xxii. chap. 22. And Huetii Ori- 
genian. Lib. ii.cap. 4. Sec. 1. § 22. 5 - Hieronymi Epist. Ixxvii. 
vel. 81. ad Augustin. Tom. iv. Part ii. p. 642. G Du Pin's Bib- 
liotheca Patrum, Art. Palladium. And Cave, Hist. Lit. Art. Pal- 
ladius. And Fleurv's Eccl. Hist. Book xxi, chap. 59, and xxii. 
3, 10. 



236 



THE ANCIENT HISTORY 



Origen. which, though it has long since perished, 
survived his death in A. D. 412. It is remarkable, 
also, that Jerome still continued to quote Origen as 
an able and authoritative expounder of Scripture, 7 
while he, at the same time, maintained his hatred 
against Rufinus and his party, and never spoke of 
them but with indecent abuse. 8 The errors of Ori- 
gen, that phrase so indefinite though so often repeated, 
were also the subject of his occasional reprehension. 
He continued to dwell on nearly the same particulars 
as formerly ; still passing over the tenet of Universa- 
lism, although it was plainly taught in some of the 
extracts which he adduced as pernicious on other 
accounts. 9 His present belief however, at least his 
professed belief, was, that the devil and his angels, 

7 * Hieronymi Epist. lxxiv. vel. 89. ad Augustin. pp. 619, 620. 
8 - Hieron. Epist. xcvi. vel. 16. ad Princip. pp. 781, 782, And 
Epist. xcvii. vel. 8. ad Demetriad. pp. 793, 794. 

9 - Hieron. Epist. xciv. vel. 59. ad Avitum. Jerome wrote this 
letter about a. d. 407, to accompany his translation of Origen's 
books Of Principles, which he gave to one Avitus, a Spaniard. 
It was composed for the purpose of pointing out the errors which 
those books contained ; and the following he selects as the prin- 
cipal : 1. That concerning the trinity. 2. The original equality 
of all intellectual creatures, and their perpetual revolution from 
bliss to misery, and from misery to bliss, by means of vice and 
virtue. 3. That all bodies whatever, with which rational beings 
are clothed, will at length vanish into nothing. 4. That innu- 
merable worlds have preceded, and that innumerable others are 
to succeed, this present. 5. That the flames and torments of 
Gehenna, or hell, which the Scriptures threaten to sinners, are 
nothing but the remorse of their consciences, in the future world. 
6. That our present conditions and circumstances are allotted us 
on account of our merits or demerits in a former state of being. 
And 7. That as Christ has been crucified for mankind in this 
world, so he will, perhaps, suffer death in eternity, for the salva- 
tion of the devil and his angels. These errors of Origen, Jerome 
exposes by means of long quotations from the books Of Principles ; 
and several of these extracts incidentally mention the Restitution 
of all creatures to purity and bliss ; but on this particular our au- 
thor makes no direct remarks. 



OF UNIVERSALISM. 



23T 



obstinate infidels and open blasphemers, shall suffer 
endless torments, while such as have embraced Chris- 
tianity, yet led vicious lives, shall be consigned only 
to a long, but temporary, purgatory after death. 10 
This doctrine he appears to have avowed for the rest 
of his life, 11 sometimes acknowledging, however, that 
those sinners who have been severely punished in this 
world, such as the antediluvians, the Sodomites and 
Pharaoh's host, will be pardoned, in the next. 12 After 
all, there is some reason to suspect that Jerome still 
remained, though in secret, a Universalist. 13 

10. Hieron. Comment, in Esaiam. Lib. xvi. (cap. Ixvi. v. 24.) 
Written a. d. 409. Tom. iii. n - Hieron. Contra. Pelagian. Lib. 
i. cap. 9. Written about a. d. 415. 12 - Du Pin's Biblioth. Pat. 
Art. Jerome. 13 - See his Comment, in Esaiam. Lib. xvi. (cap. 
Ixvi. v. 24.) Commenting upon these words of the prophet, They 
shall go forth and look upon the carcasses of the men that have 
transgressed against me ; for their worm shall not die, neither 
shall their fire be quenched ; and they shall be an abhorring unto 
all flesh, Jerome says, " this fire will burn as long as that matter 
"remains which feeds the voracious flame. If, therefore, any 
" one's conscience be infested with tares, which the enemy sowed 
" while the householder was asleep, the fire will burn and devour 
u them. And in the eyes of all the saints shall be manifested the 
u torments of those who, instead of laying gold, silver, precious 
" stones upon the foundation of the Lord, have built thereupon 
" hay, wood, stubble, the fuel of the eternal fire. Moreover, they 
" who would have these torments, though protracted through many 
" ages, come at length to an end, use the following texts ; ichen 
" the fulness of the Gentiles shall have come in, then all Israel shall 
" be saved. (Rom. xi. 25, 26.) Again : God had concluded all 
" under sin, that he may have mercy upon all. In another pas- 
" sage it is said, / will sustain the wrath of the Lord, for I have 
"sinned against him, until he justify my cause, and bring forth 
" my judgement, and lead me into light. (Micah vii. 9.) And 
u again : / will bless thee O Lord, that thou wast angry with me. 
u Thou didst turn thy face from me ; but thou hast had compassion 
"upon me. (Isa. xii. 1.) The Lord also says to the sinner, ichen 
M the wrath of my fury shall have passed, I will heal thee again. 
u Accordingly it is said, in another place, how great is the multi- 
" tude of thy favors, 0 Lord, which thou hast laid up in secret, for 
" them that fear thee ! (Ps. xxi. 19.) All which texts they repeat, 
" in order to maintain that after punishments and torture, there 
" will be a refreshing, which must now be hidden from those to 



238 



THE ANCIENT HISTORY 



IIL Nor did he stand altogether alone in the 
church. The orthodox of this age may be divided 
into five classes, with respect to their views of future 
punishment and the final extent of salvation : 1, The 
most rigid among them believed that none would 
hereafter be saved, except those who died in the true 
faith, and in the exercise of godliness ; and most, if 
not all of these held, for the less deserving saints, a 
mild purgatory, by which they were to be thoroughly 
cleansed, before their admission into heaven. Such, 
were the sentiments of the famous Augustine, 14 the 
oracle of the western church, who w r as, however, 
disposed, at times, to mitigate the severity of damna- 
tion. 15 2, Another class held, in substance with the 
more ancient fathers Lactantius, Hilary, Basil and 
Ambrose, that all would finally be saved, who con- 
tinued to the last in the catholic faith and discipline, 
whatever were their moral characters ; but that such 

" whom fear is necessary, that while they fear the torments they 
"may desist from sin. We ought to leave it to the wisdom of 
11 God alone, whose measure not only of mercy, but of torment is 
u just, and who knows whom to judge, and in what manner, and 
" how long to punish. We may only say, as becomes human 
" frailty, Lord, contend not with me in thy fury, nor in thy wrath 
" take me mvay. (Ps.) And as we believe in the eternal torments 
" of the devil and of all deniers and impious men who have said in 
" their heart There is no God ; so we may suppose that the sentence 
" of the Judge on those sinners and impious persons who never- 
" theless are Christians, and whose works are to be tried and purg- 
" ed in the fire, will be moderated and mixed with mercy." Con- 
sidering Jerome's usual positiveness, and especially his violence 
in the late contention, I cannot satisfactorily account for the fore- 
going language, so moderate if not even equivocal, without sup- 
posing that he himself secretly agreed with those Restorationists 
of whom he speaks. 

14 - Augustin. De Civitate Dei Lib. xx. cap. 1. and xxi. 24, and 
26. See also Du Pin's Biblioth. Patrum, Art. Augustine. 

15 - Augustin, Enchiridion ad Laurentium, cap. 112, 113. De 
Fide, et Op. cap. 23, 26. 



OF UNIVERSALISM. 



239 



cf them as lived wickedly should suffer a long and 
excruciating trial by fire in the future world, before 
their reception to bliss. This, probably, was the 
common, the popular belief ; and Jerome must be 
numbered among its professed advocates. 3, Others 
believed that all would eventually be saved, who had 
been baptized in the catholic church, and had par- 
taken of the eucharist, into whatever crimes, errors 
and heresies they might afterwards have fallen ; 
alleging in their support, the declarations of the 
Saviour, that whoever eateth of this bread, shall live 
forever, and the remark of the apostle, that the 
church is the body of Christ. 4, Many of the ortho- 
dox, though they held agreeably to the decision of 
the late councils against Origen, that the devil and 
his angels would suffer endless punishment, believed, 
nevertheless, that all mankind, without exception, 
would be saved ; the wicked, after ages of torment in 
hell. 5, The last class of the orthodox, which was 
perhaps small, held that God had indeed threatened 
future misery on the impenitent, but that the saints, 
at the great judgement day, would so earnestly inter- 
cede with the Almighty in behalf of the world, that 
all mankind, even the impious and the infidels, would 
be saved, without any suffering at all ; while the devil 
and his angels should be abandoned to endless torture. 
To prove the right of God to remit his threatenings, 
they adduced the judgement, denounced, but not 
executed, upon Nineveh. 16 The two classes, last 

15, Augustin. De Civil. Dei Lib. xxi, cap. 17 — 24. 



240 



THE ANCIENT HISTORY 



named, seem to have formed, if we reckon them 
together, a large proportion of the orthodox.* 

All this variety of opinion appears to have been 
tolerated in the church ; and it is natural to suppose 
that there were some who still held in secret, with 
Origen, that all intelligent creatures, including the 
apostate angels, would ultimately be reconciled to 
God. 

IV. This last opinion, heretical as it 
a. d. 410, had been adjudged, was certainly spread- 
to 415. ing, and openly taught, in the north- 
eastern province of Spain, that now 
bears the name of Catalonia. About fifty miles 
beyond the mouth of the Ebro, stands the modern 
city of Tarragona, on the venerable ruins of the 
ancient metropolis, Tarraco ; which, from the summit 
of a gentle eminence, overlooked the Mediterranean 
to the south, and a fertile country inland. 17 Two of 
the citizens, by the name of Avitus, having spent 
some time in the East, returned not far from A. D. 
410 ; and one of them brought from Jerome, in Pal- 
estine, the correct translation of Origen's books Of 
Principles, together with a long Letter pointing out 
their erroneous doctrines. 18 But the antidote proved 
only a partial preventive. While the two friends 
rejected some of Origen's speculations, they adopted 
others ; and with the assistance of one Basil, a Gre- 

* Augustin, Enchiridion, cap. 112. " Quam plurimi" is the 
phrase by which lie denotes the number of those who did not 
believe that eternal punishment would be actually inflicted. 

17 - Swinburne's Travels in Spain. 1S - Hieronymi Epist. xciv. 
ve 1)9, ad Avitum. See Sect. ii. of this chapter, Note 9* 



OF UNIVERSAL1SM. 



241 



cian, they proceeded to teach among the people the 
following peculiar tenets,* 1, That all things had, 
from eternity, a real existence in the mind of Deity. 
2, That angels, human souls and demons were of one 
uniform, equal substance, and originally of the same 
rank ; and that their present diversity is the conse- 
quence of their former deserts. 3, That this world 
was made for the punishment and purification of the 
souls which had sinned in the pre-existent state. 4, 
That the flames of future torment are not material 
fire but only the remorse of conscience. 5, That 
they are not endless ; for, although they are called 
everlasting, yet that - word, in the original Greek, 
does not, according to its etymology and its frequent 
use, signify endless, but answers only to the duration 
of an age ; so that every sinner, after the purification 
of his conscience, shall return into the unity of the 
body of Christ. 6, That the devil himself will, at 
length, be saved, when all his wickedness shall have 
been subdued. 7, That Christ had been employed, 
before his advent on earth, in preaching to the angels 
and exalted powers. 8, That the sun, moon and 
stars are to be reckoned among those intelligent ra- 
tional creatures who, according to St. Paul, were 
made subject to vanity, and likewise to hope. 19 

These doctrines, together with the separate heresy 
of the Priscillianists which flourished in Spain, caused 
so much disturbance at Tarraco and its neighborhood, 
that two of the bishops at length sent a deputation 
on the subject to Augustine in Africa ; and he imme- 

19 - Orosii Consultatio sive Commonitorium ad Augustin. inter 
Augustini Opp. Tom. vi. Edit. Basil. 1569. 

21 



242 



THE ANCIENT HISTORY 



diately wrote, in return, a small book 
a. d. 415. Against the Priscillianists and Origen- 

ists, but chiefly against the latter. In op- 
position to their views of future punishment, he assert- 
ed the materiality of its fire, and laboriously defended 
the eternity of its duration ; attempting to maintain 
that the original word, translated everlasting, always 
signified endless. But, because there might be some 
exceptions, as he at the same time inconsistently ad- 
mitted, he then changed his ground, and resorted to 
that declaration of Christ, These shall go away into 
everlasting punishment, but the righteous into life 
eternal, (Matt* xxv. 46,) where the same Greek 
word was applied to the torments of the damned, and 
to the bliss of the saints : so that if the Origenists 
would, through compassion, limit the duration of the 
former, they must also restrict that of the latter. But, 
if this should not convince them, how could they 
elude that declaration of the prophet Isaiah, Their 
worm shall not die, neither shall their Jive be quench- 
ed? (Isa. lxvi. 24.) 20 

Such is the order and substance of his arguments. 
It is remarkable, that here we meet with the earliest 
attempt at criticism on that original word which has 
been the subject of so much cavilling in modern 
times. But Augustine, a Latin writer, was too imper- 
fectly acquainted with the Greek language to define 
its terms ; and, if we may judge from what we have 
observed in our own day, his criticisms were account- 
ed satisfactory, by the determined believers in endless 

80 Augustini Lib. Contra Priscillianistas et Origenistas, Tom. vi. 



OF UNIVERSALISM. 



243 



misery, but absurd, by the Universalists. A few 
years afterwards, in composing a general body of 
divinity, he repeated some of these arguments, with 
several additions, and combatted the notions of all 
the several classes just mentioned, who extended the 
happiness of heaven beyond the number who died in 
faith and holiness. 81 He has furnished the moderns 
with many of the trite but popular objections, which 
are now alleged from the Scriptures, against the salva- 
tion of all mankind.* 

21 - Augustin. De Civit. Dei Lib. xxi. cap. 23 — 24. 

* As a specimen of his reasoning, or declamation, which with 
him was original, I subjoin an entire chapter from his great work, 
The City of God. 

" And in the first place we should ascertain why the Church 
" has refused to allow people to dispute in favor of a purification 
"and release of the devil himself, after very great and lasting 
"punishments: It was not that so many holy men, so well in- 
" structed in the Old and New Testaments, grudged any of the 
"angels a purification, and the bliss of. heaven after so great tor- 
u ments ; but it was because they saw it impossible to annul or 
" weaken that divine sentence which the Lord declared he would 
"pronounce in the judgement, Depart from me, ye cursed, into 
" eternal fire, prepared for the devil and his angels. (Matt. xxv. 
"41.) For thus it is shown that the devil and his angels are to 
"burn in eternal fire. As it is written in the Apocalypse : The 
" devil who deceived them teas cast into the lake of fire and brim- 
" stone, where are the beast and the false prophet ; and they shall 
L - be tormented day and night forever and ever. (Rev. xx. 10.) 
" What is called in the other passage eternal, is here expressed 
" by forever and ever: by which words the divine Scripture is 
" wont to mean nothing but what is endless in duration. And 
" there is no other reason, nor can one more just and manifest be 
"found, why we should hold it fixed and immutable in the sin- 
merest piety, that the devil and his angels are never to return 
" to righteousness and the life of the holy, than that the Serip- 
" ture, which deceives no one, says that God spared them not (2 
"Pet. ii. 4,) but delivered them up to be kept in prisons of infer- 
" nal darkness, in order to be punished at the last judgement, when 
"they shall be sent into eternal fire, where they shall be tor- 
" mented forever and ever. This being the case, how can all, or 
"any of mankind, after a certain period, be restored from the 
" eternity of this punishment, and not immediately weaken that 
" faith by which we believe the torments of the demons will be 



244 



TH£ ANCIENT HISTORY 



V. But however inconclusive his arguments may 
have been deemed, the great authority of his opinin- 

" endless ? For if all or any of those to whom it shall be said, 
" Depart from me, ye cursed, into eternal fire, prepared for the 
" devil and his angels, shall not always remain there, what rea- 
" son have we to believe that the devil and his angels will always 
u remain there ? Will the sentence of God which is pronounced 
" both against the evil angels and men, be true with respect to 
" the angels, and false with respect to men ? Thus it will plainly 
"be, if not what God said, but what men suspect, avail the most. 
" But because that cannot be the case, they who would shun 
" eternal torments, ought, while there is time, to yield to the 
" divine precept, instead of arguing against God. And again : 
" how can we suppose eternal torment to be only a fire of long 
"duration, and yet eternal life to be without end, when in the 
"very same passage, and in one and the same sentence, Christ 
"said with reference to both, These shall go away into eternal 
" punishment, but the righteous into eternal life? (Matt. xxv. 46.) 
" As both are eternal, both certainly ought to be understood either 
" as of long duration but with an end, or else as perpetual, with 
" no end. For they are connected together : on the one hand, 
" eternal punishment ; on the other eternal life. And it is very 
" absurd to say, in this one and the same sense, that eternal life 
"will be without end, and eternal punishment will have an end. 
" Whence, as the eternal life of the saints will be without end, 
"so also the eternal punishment of those who shall suffer it, will, 
"without any doubt, have no end." De Civitate Dei Lib. xxi. 
cap. 23. This remains, even to the present day, the most popu- 
lar, and perhaps the most plausible argument used against the 
doctrine of Universal Salvation ; and vet it is founded on one of 
the most palpable blunders into which the church has fallen : 
that of applying to eternity what Christ declared should be ac- 
complished in his own generation. Compare Matt. xxv. 31 — , 
with its immediate connexion, Matt. xxiv. 30 — 34 ; and also with 
Matt. x. 23— xvi. 27, 28.— Mark viii. 38, ix. 1.— Luke ix. 26, 27. 

Another chapter of the same work, furnishes us with the orig- 
inal, I believe, whence has been derived one of the popular 
methods of justifying the infliction of endless torments : " But to 
" human notions eternal punishment seems hard and unjust, be- 
M cause that in the weakness of our mortal senses we are destitute 
" of that most exalted and pure wisdom by which we could real- 
" ize how great was the wickedness committed in the first trans- 
"gression. For in proportion as man enjoyed God, was the 
"magnitude of his impiety in forsaking God; and he was worthy 
"of eternal evil, who destroyed in himself that good which might 
" have been eternal. And the whole mass of the human race 
" was therefore condemned, because that he who first introduced 
" sin, was punished together with his posterity which had its root 
"in him; so that none could be released from this just and mer- 



OF UNIVERSALIS}!. 



245" 



ions, especially in the western churches, must have 
checked the progress of any doctrine which he was 
known so decidedly to oppose. Already were his 
talents, his virtues, and his faithfulness regarded with 
a general homage, such as had been enjoyed by none 
of the Christian doctors, since the time of the more 
vigorous and enterprizing, but less amiable Anthana- 
sius. In the West, his decisions were received with 
almost universal deference ; and in the East, his name 
was regarded with great, though perhaps not equal, 
veneration. A long and intimate familiarity with the 
Scriptures, a competent share of learning, and a large 
fund of general information, which had been rather 
hastily collected, supplied his strong and capacious 
mind with subjects for reflection, and provided his 
argumentative genius with the weapons of contro-? 
versy, which, however, he generally managed with 
moderation. In general, he treated his opponents 
with an indulgence to which they were unaccustomed, 
and which would appear with advantage in the theo- 
logical warfare of a later and more reGned age. That 
he sometimes dissembled for truth's sake, and that he 

"ited penalty, but by mercy and unmerited grace. And thus 
"mankind are so situated that in some of them the power of 
" merciful grace may be exhibited ; and in the rest, the power of 
" vindictive justice. For both could not be manifested upon all ; 
"because if all should remain in the suiferings of their just dam- 
nation, in none would appear the merciful grace of redemption, 
u and if all should be translated from darkness into light, in none 
" would appear the severity of vengeance. Of the latter class 
" there are many more than of the former ; that thus might be 
" shown what was due to all. And if it had been inflicted upon 
" all, none could, with propriety, have called in question the 
"justice of the vengeance ; and the release of so many as are saved 
u therefrom, should be an occasion of the greatest thanksgiving 
"for the gift of redemption." De Civitate Dei Lib. xxi. cap. 12. 
N. B. This was written about a. d. 420, or 426. 

21* 



246 



THE ANCIENT HISTORY 



countenanced the legal persecution of schismatics, 
when he could not persuade them to-reenter the cath- 
olic church, may in justice be imputed to the perni- 
cious but approved maxims of his times. Augustine 
was a great and a good man. Yet he was the father 
of the present orthodox system of total depravity, 
irresistible grace, and sovereign, partial election. 

VI. By introducing this system of doctrine into 
the church, he unknowingly laid upon the cause of 
Universalism a remote, but eventually, a more fatal 
check, than even the decisions of a council could 
have imposed. Hitherto, none of the catholic Chris- 
tians had gone farther, in their very lowest descents 
into orthodoxy, than to represent, that from the fall of 
Adam, all his posterity inherited a mortal constitution, 
and such an unhappy weakness of soul, as combined 
with the depravity of the flesh, caused a propensity 
to sin ; and that the supernatural influences of God's 
spirit were necessary to aid, not strictly to create 
good resolutions, and to render them effectual. But 
this divine agency, they had ever held, was always 
received or rejected, cherished or suppressed, yielded 
to or resisted, by the free will of the creature ; and 
they had never disputed, that all had competent 
power, both natural and moral, to avail themselves 
of its assistance. It was proffered sincerely to all, 
for the single purpose of preserving in holiness such 
as were already pure, and of reclaiming the sinful ; 
for, it was unequivocally the will of God that all 
should be saved. There may, indeed, have been 
some who entertained a vague notion that the devil 
and his angels, when they apostatized, sunk below 



OF UNIVERSALIS*!. 



247 



the reach of divine mercy, and that impenitent sin- 
ners, when they die, pass the irremeable line. But, 
that God had sought to prevent the fatal catastrophe, 
appears to have been doubted by none ; and, that his 
decrees were concerned in procuring it, was a thought 
from which every one would have shrunk with horror. 

So long as it was the invariable opinion that God 
sincerely aimed at the repentance and salvation of all 
his erring creatures, it is easy to discover that a silent 
but strong influence was constantly bearing the more 
reflecting minds towards Universalism ; since it was 
unreasonable to suppose that the will of an immutable 
Deity could ever totally abandon its aim, or that Om- 
nipotence would be forever frustrated in its objects by 
the impotence of man. Resulting from this view 
there was also a favorable, though often indefinite, per- 
suasion of the general goodness of God, which tended 
to suggest doubts of the eternal infliction of a torment 
as fruitless as it was unmerciful. Put when Chris- 
tians became accustomed to consider it the arbitrary 
determination of the almighty Sovereign to save a 
part, and a part only, and at the same time to aban- 
don the rest to certain and complete ruin, the doc- 
trine of endless misery stood on its own proper and 
substantial foundation, — the divine counsel; for, it 
was not likely that the neglected and helpless wretches 
would be saved, when their recovery was not actually 
desired by God. 22 

22 - I do not forget, what may at first seem inconsistent with. 
this reasoning, that the high Calvinism of Whitfield and his 
school, was the immediate occasion of the rise of the present sect 
of Universalists. But, then, the leading preachers of Whitfield's 
connexion did not usually dwell on the black side of the picture. 



248 



THE ANCIENT HISTORY 



VII. This change of doctrine, one of 
a. d. 412, the most momentous which has ever oc- 
to 418. curred, seems to have taken place in the 
church, like many others, by accident 
rather than by design. Two British monks, Pelagius 
and his disciple Celestius, residing at Rome early in 
this century, imbibed some peculiar sentiments from 
certain 23 Christians who had studied in the East. 
Though these sentiments were silently spreading in 
the city, little notice was taken of them ; and Pela- 
gius continued to enjoy a high and deserved reputa- 
tion for the purity of his character and for the warmth 
of his devotion to the church. Going at length into 
Africa, he formed some acquaintance with Augustine ; 
and then pursued his course on a visit to John, in 
Palestine, leaving Celestius at Carthage. Bere. the 
latter was soon involved in a charge of heresy: and 
he was condemned at the council of Carthage, in A. 
D. 412, for teaching, what was certainly a considera- 
ble variation from the popular belief of the age, that 
Adam was created mortal, and that his transgression 
affected none of his posterity, but himself alone. To 

The favorite themes on which many of them used to expatiate, 
with all the fervor of enthusiasm, were, the complete pardon 
purchased by Christ, the free, unconditional gift of salvation, and 
the omnipotent energy of God's spirit in converting sinners. 
When these encouraging topics were so zealously urged, without 
a corresponding regard for the decree of damnation, it was but 
one step forward to the hope, the conclusion, that God would 
have all men to be saved ; and to this step, the strong tide of 
their new feelings, their view of the Messiah's increasing and 
snctorious kingdom, as well as the testimonies of Scripture, im- 
pelled them, often before they were thoroughly aware. 

23 - It has been supposed that one Rufinus, a Syrian (a friend 
and not the opponent of Jerome) brought this doctrine from Asia 
Minor, and perhaps from Theodorus of Mopsuestia, to Rome, 
and here taught it to Pelagius, 



OF UNIVERSALIS*!. 



249 



these particulars we may here add some others which 
were involved during the progress of the succeeding 
controversy, and which complete the doctrine of Pel- 
agianism : that as mankind are now born pure, they 
are able, after transgression, to repent, reform, and 
arrive at length to the highest degrees of virtue and 
piety, even to perfection, by the exercise merely of 
their own natural powers ; that though the external 
excitements of divine grace are necessary to rouse 
their endeavors, yet they have no need of any inter- 
nal agency of the Holy Ghost ; that infant baptism 
does not wash away sin, but is only a ceremony of 
admittance into the church of Christ; and that good 
works are meritorious as the conditions of salvation. 
Such, it appears, were the real tenets of Pelagius and 
Celestius, though they were sometimes unjustly charg- 
ed, with disowning the necessity of the grace of God, 
in every sense relative to human actions, and with 
denying the utility of infant baptism. 

On the condemnation of Celestius, in the council 
of Carthage, Augustine began to preach and to write 
against the heresy, with his characteristic tenderness 
at first towards its authors, but always with a cool, 
invincible determination to destroy their doctrine, root 
and branch. But, in the long contest which followed, 
he himself went over, by degrees, to the opposite 
extreme ; and influenced, perhaps, by the early bias 
of his Manichean principles, 24 he maintained, what 

**■ See Appendix to Chapter v. Sect. 2. Note (2.) It is a 
curious circumstance that nearly all the fathers who had been 
converted from other religions, always retained some of the 
peculiarities of their former doctrines, notwithstanding they be- 
came the most strenuous opposers of those systems, taken as a 



250 



THE ANCIENT HISTORY 



was new in the church, that Adam's transgression had 
so thoroughly corrupted all his posterity, that, by 
nature, they could do only evil, and that nothing but 
the irresistible spirit of the Almighty could incline 
their wills to good, and induce them, contrary to their 
nature, to accept of his grace. God alone was, from 
first to last, the immediate agent of their counternatu- 
ral conversion ; and on his arbitrary pleasure only did 
it depend, whether the impotent sinner should be ren- 
ovated. From these premises he advanced to the 
necessary conclusion, that God had foreordained 
whom to convert, and finally to save, without refer- 
ence to any thing which they should perform ; while 
he had likewise predetermined to pass by all the 
remainder of the fallen race. Such was the first 
organization of the present orthodox system, so far as 
it regards total depravity, election and reprobation. 25 

whole. Witness the converts from the Greeks, who corrupted 
Christianity with their old philosophy ; and those from the Ma- 
gi an religion, who introduced the monstrous fables of the Gnostics. 

25 - The difference between Augustine's doctrine and that of 
Calvin, on election and reprobation, though small, is such as to 
betray the crudeness of the master, and the finishing touches of 
his scholar. Augustine seems to have held that God did not 
ordain the fall of Adam, and that it was after that event occurred, 
and when it had become certain that the whole race would be 
born totally depraved and therefore under helpless bondage to 
sin, that the elect were chosen and the reprobate abandoned. 
The original plan of creation did not embrace such a result. But 
Calvin and other Reformers, with a better digested arrangement, 
carried back the separating decree to the past ages of eternity; 
so that mankind were originally created for their respective des- 
tinations. Augustine was by no means thoroughly systematic : 
He held that Christ died for all men ; that even genuine conver- 
sion is no security of final happiness, as the subjects may after- 
wards fatally relapse and perish ; and that the grace of persever- 
ance alone is the pledge of personal election. No infants, who 
had not been baptized, could be saved; because, regeneration 
was effected only in the rite of water baptism, 



OF UNIVERSALISM. 



251 



With quite different views, the Pelagians were also 
attacked by other cotemporary writers, and among the 
rest by Jerome, with his accustomed violence. 

VIII. During the first three or four 
a. d. 413, years of his troubles, Pelagius resided in 
to 420. Palestine, enjoying the patronage of John 
of Jerusalem ; and when, in A, D. 416, 
he was arraigned, on a charge of heresy, before a 
synod at Diospolis, near Joppa, that prelate earnestly 
defended him, and procured his entire acquittal. 26 
But John did not live to witness the conclusion of 
the controversy. A peaceful death closed his career 
in the beginning of A. D. 417, at about the age of 
sixty. He was somewhat famous in his day, but 
chiefly for the part he bore in the contests which 
agitated the church. We discover nothing in his life, 
that evinces superior learning, talents, or piety ; and 
as he has been generally described, he betrays con- 
siderable petulance, timidity, and wary cunning. In 
justice to him, however, we must remember that his 
history is collected wholly from his opponents, and 
chiefly from his bitter enemies. His friends, it is cer- 
tain, gave him the character of a worthy and pious 
man ; and even Pope Anastasius and Augustine ad- 
dressed him in terms of respect and esteem. Indeed, 
such as he is actually described, it would be no dis- 
paragement to the generality of his cotemporaries to 
compare them with him. He was a zealous patron of 
the monastic life, and joined in the prevailing venera- 
tion of relics ; and his last days were honored, to 
adopt the language of those times, by the miraculous 

*• Fleury's Eccl. Hist. Book xxiiiv chap. 19, 20. 



252 



THE ANCIENT HISTORY 



discovery of the bodies of Stephen the first martyr, of 
Nicodemus who came to our Saviour by night, and of 
Gamaliel the master of St. Paul. These remains, 
undoubtedly of some nameless persons, drew vast con- 
courses on their exhibition, excited universal awe, and 
of course wrought numerous miracles, according to the 
invariable custom of relics, in that age. 27 

In taking our final leave of John of Jerusalem, we 
must also bid adieu to one who has borne a still more 
conspicuous part in the events of this history. Je- 
rome died, very old, at Bethlehem, in the year 420 ; 
but the account we have already given of his life and 
conduct, sufficiently exhibits his character, without the 
tediousness of a formal analysis. 

IX, Of all the ancient Universalists, 
a, d. 420, the more respectable for good sense and 
to 428. sober judgement, if we may rely on the 
opinion of modern critics, 28 than Theo- 
dorus bishop of Mopsuestia, a very eminent orthodox 
father, and a voluminous writer. Belonging to an 
illustrious Syrian family in Antioch, he was placed 
under the instruction of the renowned heathen sophist 
and critic, Libanius ; and then, in company with the 
celebrated Chrysostom, he studied divinity in the 
school of Diodorus, whom we have named as the 
Universalist bishop of Tarsus. At the close of his 
studies, he appears to have been ordained a presbyter 
in his native city. Here, also, we soon afterwards 

27 - Fleury's Eccl. Hist. Book xxiii. chap. 22, 23. 28 - Beauso- 
bre, (Hist, de Manichee Lib. i. chap. 4. Tom. i. p. 288.) Lardner, 
(Credibility &c. Chap. Theodore of Mopsuestia) and Mosheim, 
(Eccl. Hist. Cent. v. Part ii. chap. 2,3.) speak in the highest terms 
of his useful talents and apparent sound judgement. 



OF UNIVERSALISM. 



253 



find him engaged, with Chrysostom, instructing youths 
in a monastery, where he had the famous Nestorius 
for one of his pupils. In the year 392, a little before 
the death of his master Diodorus, he was appointed 
bishop of Mopsuestia, which stood nearly forty miles 
eastward of Tarsus, and occupied both banks of the 
river Pyramus. Here, he passed a long episcopate, 
of about thirty-six years, in composing numerous 
commentaries and polemical works ; maintaining, the 
mean while, the reputation of a distinguished preacher, 
at Antioch, at Constantinople, and over all the East. 

Like his master Diodorus, he followed the natural 
and simple mode of interpretation \ and it w r ould 
seem, from some fragments, which alone have de- 
scended to us, of his writings, that he cultivated this 
method with more judgement, than a large part even 
of our modern commentators. So much did he dislike 
the allegorical expositions of Origen, of whom he was 
no admirer, that he published a work against them.* 
Though he held the tenets for which Pelagius was 
condemned, and though he was, perhaps, the source 
whence they were indirectly transmitted to that unfor- 
tunate heretic, yet his orthodoxy seems never to have 
been impeached during his life-time. It appears, also, 
that he avowed, with impunity, the restoration of the 
wicked from hell, long after the contest with the Ori- 
genists had brought it into disrepute. " They, " says 
he, " who have chosen the good, shall, in the future 
" world, be blessed and honored. But the wicked, 
" who have committed evil the whole period of their 

* Faeundi Hermianensis do Tribus Capit. Lib. iii. cap. 6. inter 
Sirmondi Opp. Tom. ii. p. 362. 

22 



254 



THE ANCIENT HISTORY 



* lives, shall be punished till they learn, that, by con- 
" tinuing in sin, they only continue in misery. And 
" when, by this means, they shall have been brought 
" to fear God, and to regard him with a good-will, 
" they shall obtain the enjoyment of his grace. For, 
" he never would have said, Until thou hast paid the 
u uttermost farthing, (Matt. v. 26,) unless w T e could 
" be released from punishment, after having suffered 
" adequately for sin ; nor would he have said, He 
" shall be beaten with many stripes, and again, He 
" shall be beaten with few, stripes, (Luke xii. 47, 48,) 
" unless the punishments to be endured for sin, will 
" have an end."* We learn, also, from Photius, of 
the ninth century, who w r as one of the most trusty 
ecclesiastical critics of antiquity, that he found, in 
another work of Theodorus, " the notion of Origen 
" concerning the termination of the punishments of the 
" future state, "f 

He maintained that the reason why God permitted 
sin, was, that it would be ultimately made to subserve 
the good of mankind.^ According to Photius, he held 
that Adam was created mortal, that mankind inherit 
no moral corruption from him ; that infants are born 
without sin ; and that mankind sin, not by nature, but 
by their free-will ; or rather, he opposes the contrary 
opinions, which, he says, were taught by some west* 
ern Christians, alluding, probably, to Augustine and 

* Assemani Biblioth. Orient. Tom. ui. Par. L p. 323. t Photii 
Biblioth. Cod. 177. The work of Theodorus, which Photius here 
quotes, must have been written about as late as the year 420 ; since 
it is evident, from its topics, that the Pelagian controversy had 
already made considerable noise, even in the East. $ See Dli 
Pin's Biblioth. Pat. 5th Cent. Art. Theodorus of Mopsuestia. 



OF UNIVERSALISM. 



255 



his party. 29 He was always a firm and steady oppo 
ser of Arianism ; but it is suspected that he was the 
father of Nestorianism, a doctrine which arrived, 
though in a blind and very circuitous way, to little 
else than the simple humanity of Jesus Christ. He 
died undisturbed, however, in the catholic communion, 
in A. D. 428, aged not far, probably, from seventy 
years. 

But, after his death, he was often reproached for 
his Pelagianism, and for his connexion with his scholar 
Nestorius ; and, in the middle of the next century, he 
was anathematized, on the latter account, by the Fifth 
General council. Accordingly, his works, for the most 
part, have either perished, or been preserved only in 
the Syriac language, among the Nestorians of the 
East. 39 

X, Directing our attention, from Cilic- 
a. d. 430, ia, down the Mediterranean coast to the 
to 450. Holy Land, we discover that here Uni- 
versalism prevailed, about this time, to 
a considerable extent among the monks, especially 
around Cesarea in Palestine. But the glimpse we 
obtain of the matter, is casual and imperfect, and soon 
obstructed by surrounding darkness. We only know 
that Origenism had openly appeared in the country, 

29 - Photii Bib. Cod. 177. 30 - Besides fragments of his writings 
among the acts of the Fifth General Council, in Facundus Her- 
mianensis, and in Photius, it is supposed that the Commentary on 
the Psalms, under the name of Theodorus, in Catena Corderii, be- 
longs to our author. It is said also that his Commentaries on the 
Twelve Minor Prophets, exist in manuscript in the Emperor's Li- 
brary at Vienna, in the Library of St. Mark at Venice, and in the 
Library of the Vatican. These, however, form but a very small 
part of the ancient catalogue of his works, 



256 



THE ANCIENT HISTORY 



with a numerous party of advocates ; and that the 
particulars, in their doctrine, which gave most offence, 
were the pre-existence of souls, and the universal res- 
toration. Against both of these points. Euthymius. 
the chief abbot who then presided over the monaster- 
ies in the desert between Jerusalem and the Dead 
Sea, opposed his utmost zeal and indignation. 31 but 
with what effect we are not informed. It does not 
appear, however, that any of the party were arraign- 
ed, nor their tenets condemned. We naturally sus- 
pect that their faith had always lingered around the 
churches where Origen preached, and where Alexan- 
der. Theoctistus and John presided ; and there is 
some reason to suppose, that it continued to exist in 
the country, till it broke out, as we shall learn, sixty 
or seventy years afterwards, and spread through a 
large part of Palestine. 

But. with a single exception that will 
a. d. 450, be noticed at the close, we seek in vain, 
to 500. in the remainder of the present century, 
for any traces of the doctrine. It had 
grown unpopular. For though it had not been judic- 
ially branded with the indelible mark of heresy, save 
when it embraced the salvation of the devil and his 
angels, yet even in its restricted form, as extending 
only to the restoration of all mankind, it had been 
pointed out as an obnoxious and kindred error ; and 
the repose of the public, as well as the quiet of the 
individual, must have suggested the prudence of con- 

31 - Vita Euthvmii, per Cyrillum Seythopolitanum. inter Cote- 
lerii Monumenta Gra?c. Ecclesia? Tom. iv. p. 52. See also a Para- 
phrase on this work, by Symeon 3Ietaphraste>, in Tom. ii. 



OF UNIVERSALISM. 



257 



cealment. Even the familiar name of Origenism 
almost wholly disappears, during this period. 32 We 
may, indeed, discover a favorable disposition in the 
ecclesiastical historians, Socrates, Sozomen and Theo- 
doret ; of whom, the two first defended the reputation 
of its former advocates, and the last neglected to insert 
it in his general Catalogue of heresies. But on the 
other hand, it appears that Antipater, bishop of Bostra 
in Arabia, undertook to refute the Apology of Pam- 
philus and Eusebius for Origen : and that, about the 
same time, a Council at Rome, in A. D. 496, either 
gave or followed the example. 33 

XL But other and more interesting 
a. d. 450, causes may be assigned for the silence 
to 500, which pervades the ecclesiastical writings 
of this period, with regard to Universa- 

32 - To this period, if not to a later, may perhaps be assigned the 
anonymous Jlpology for Origen, in jive books, which Photius de- 
scribes (Biblioth. Cod. 117.) without fixing its date. According to 
him, it was of little value. The author, it appears, mentioned 
Clemens Alexandrinus, Dionysius the Great, and even Demetrius, 
as witnesses in favor of Origen ; and he strove, particularly, to 
defend Pamphilus and Eusebius, which shows that it was after 
they had been reproached for their Apology, perhaps by Jerome, 
perhaps by Antipater. He also acknowledged and maintained. 
Origen's doctrine of Pre-existence and some other heterodox no- 
tions ; but he denied that Origen had been guilty of the following 
errors charged upon him ; 4 That the Son is not to be invoked, is 
not absolutely good, and knows not the Father as he knows him- 
self; That rational natures enter into brutes, that there is a trans- 
migration into different kinds of bodies ; That the soul of Christ 
was that of Adam ; That there is no eternal punishment for sin- 
ners, nor resurrection of the flesh ; That magic is not evil, and 
that the influence of the stars governs our conduct ; That the only 
begotten Son will, hereafter, possess no kingdom ; That the holy 
angels came into the world as fallen creatures, not to assist others ; 
That the Father cannot be seen by the Son ; that the Cherubim 
are merely the thoughts of the Son ; That Christ, the image of 
God, so far as he is the image, is not the true God. ' 33 - Huet. 
Origenian. Lib. ii. cap. 4. Sect. ii. § 24, 25. 

22* 



258 



THE ANCIENT HISTORY 



lism. There is no wonder it should have been over- 
looked, or if known to exist, that it should have been 
suffered to pass unnoticed, when subjects far different, 
and of the most distracting nature, engrossed the atten- 
tion of all Christendom. The Roman Empire in the 
West was going to wreck amidst the boisterous and 
conflicting waves that rolled in upon it from the fierce 
North ; and it finally sunk under the repeated assaults 
of the barbarians, in the year 476. Odoacer, king of 
the Heruli, enjoyed the spoils, and stretched his scep- 
tre over all Italy. Other conquerors advanced from 
the exhaustless regions of barbarism, and, in their turn, 
wrested the power from the recent victors. From 
Rome to Britain, from the Danube to Africa, all was 
a scene of anxiety and distress. Amidst the general 
commotion, the church beheld, with equal chagrin 
and fear, the exiled Arians return along with the in- 
vading hosts of their barbarian converts, and, under 
the patronage of the Huns, Goths and Vandals, as- 
sume the pre-eminence in Italy, Gaul and the African 
provinces. The catholics now dreaded, and they 
sometimes felt, the scourge of retribution ; but they 
still retained sufficient spirit to wage, at intervals, a 
polemical contest with the Pelagians and Semi-Pela- 
gians. The Roman pontiffs, however, had other sub- 
jects of interest, in the terrible and shameful conten- 
tions that raged, with unprecedented violence and 
duration, in the eastern churches. 

The Empire of the East, though little annoyed by 
foreign enemies, was agitated by the desperate quarrels 
of the clergy, who have left, on the records of this age, 
one of the blackest stains that disgrace the pages of 



OF UNIVERSALXSM. 



259 



ecclesiastical history. The great archbishopric of 
Egypt, which had hitherto maintained its superiority 
among the eastern diocesses, watched, with an envious 
eye, the growing influence of the new see of Constan- 
tinople, which was rapidly ascending to a rank next 
that of Rome ; and the two successive prelates of 
Alexandria, who inherited the vices and the jealousy 
of Theophilus, had already shaken Nestorius and, after 
him Flavian, from the episcopal throne of the rival 
city, by means of some intricate questions concerning 
the union of the divine and human natures of Christ. 
All the East, from the Nile and the Bosphorus to the 
Euphrates, took sides for a long contest, in which 
honor and freedom were staked, and deposition and 
banishment were the penalty of failure. The artifices, 
the outrageous injustice, and shameless effrontery, 
which prevail in the most degenerate courts in times 
of violent faction, disgraced three General Councils, 34 
in quick succession, and procured for one of them, 
even in that age, an appellation which truly belonged 
to all, The Assembly of Robbers. The indignant 
spectator gladly turns from these deplorable scenes ; 35 
and we may only remark, that before the close of this 
century, the Nestorian, Eulychian and Monophysite 
heresies were successively condemned, as they arose, 

84 - At Ephesus, in a. p. 431; at the same place, in a. d. 449 ; 
and at Chalcedon, in a. d. 451. That in a. d. 449 is not reckoned, 
by the Catholics, among the General Councils, because the legates 
of the Pope were excluded. 

35 - Of this contest Gibbon (Decline and Fall &c. chap, xlvii.) 
has given a description to the life, which though slightly marked 
with his infidel irony, seems well supported, and does not differ, 
materially, from the narrative of the Catholic Fleury, (Eccl.Hist, 
Book xxv. and onwards.) 



260 



THE ANCIENT HISTORY 



and that amidst riots, intrigue, bribery, kicks and 
blows, was settled the present orthodox faith concern- 
ing the two natures of Christ : that his divinity and 
humanity are most intimately united in one person, 
while they are nevertheless distinct. 

XII. Near the close of the century, 
About we find a single instance of Universalism, 
a. d. 500. in the remote country, however, of Mes- 
opotamia, and beyond the bounds of the 
Roman Empire. At Edessa, about seventy miles east 
of the upper waters of the Euphrates, and twenty-six 
northwest of the ancient Haran,* the abbot Stephan 
Bar-Sudaili presided over a cloister of monks, and 
maintained a distinguished reputation among those 
Christians who held the simple unity of the divine 
and human nature of Christ. But deviating, at 
length, from the common faith of his brethren, he 
proceeded to teach that future punishments will fin- 
ally come to an end ; that wicked men and devils, 
having been purified, will obtain mercy ; and that all 
things will be brought into unity with God, so that, as 
St. Paul expresses it, he shall become all in all. 36 
Whether he succeeded, to any extent, in propagating 
this doctrine among the churches of Mesopotamia and 
Syria, we are not informed. We only know that it 
soon called forth the complaints of some of his breth- 
ren, who stigmatized it as heresy ; 37 and that he left 

* See Buckingham's Travels in Mesopotamia &c. chap. iii. — v. 
**• Assemani Biblioth. Orient. Tom. ii. pp. 30—33, 291. See, too, 
Neander's remarks, Allgemeine Geschichte der christlich. Relig- 
ion u. s. w. 2n. Band 3te. Abtheil. § 793 — 795. 3: - Assemani 
Bib. Orient. Tom. i. p. 303. Tom. ii. pp. 30—33. 



OF UNIVERSALISM. 



261 



Edessa, and went into Palestine, — perhaps, to asso- 
ciate with the Origenists there. 

XIII. Nothing remains but to close w T ith a passing 
notice of the Manicheans. Under this appellation, 
which had now grown somewhat indefinite, may be 
comprehended about all the Gnostic Christians of this 
century ; for the Priseillianists, who were numerous in 
Spain, and a few Marcionites, scattered in various 
parts, were often classed, and not very improperly, 
with the more genuine followers of Mani, who lurked 
in every quarter of Christendom. All of them had 
been led, by their intercourse with the Roman world, 
to modify their general system, and to omit some of 
their fables ; but they always adhered to their funda- 
mental doctrine of two original Principles, the distinct 
causes of good and evil. On one solitary point we^ 
may prefer their views to those entertained by a large 
part of the orthodox : they contemplaated Deity in 
the unchangeable character of universal and perfect 
benevolence. This important sentiment, together with 
their fanciful notion concerning the divine emanation 
of all souls, would naturally incline them to expect 
the eventual recovery of human nature ; but how far 
they approached towards this conclusion, does not dis- 
tinctly appear. They still retained enough of their 
oriental peculiarities to render them intolerable to the 
Greek and Roman sects ; and, while the cruel laws 
of persecution compelled them to the most careful 
concealment, the sharp-sighted zeal of the bishops and 
governors often detected them through all their dis- 
guises. 



CHAPTER IX. 

[From A. D. 580, to A. D. 554.] 

I, The opening scene of our narrative lies in the 
barren solitude between Jerusalem and Bethlehem on 
the West, and the sunken coast of the Dead Sea, or 
lake Asphaltites, on the East. The wild and austere 
features of desolation, which pervade this mountain- 
ous desert, will readily occur to every one who has 
attentively studied the geography of Palestine. But 
it can scarcely be accounted a useless interruption, if 
we pause here to take a more careful and particular 
view of a region so full of interest, and which retains, 
to this day, nearly the same appearance it wore in the 
sixth century. 

Beginning our survey at the north-eastern extremity, 
and standing on some elevated spot, if such there be, 
in the fields adjacent to the once flourishing Jericho, 
we should find ourselves in the midst of an uneven 
plain, of great length and considerable breadth. Its 
fertility departed, ages ago, with the banished tribes, 
and left little remains on the parched surface, except 
a kind of spiny grass, and a few detached groves and 
plantations. Two leagues to the East, the plain is 
divided by the reedy and shrub-covered banks of the 
Jordan, whose turbid waters hasten along through a 
narrow channel towards their entrance into the Dead 



OF UNIVERSALISM. 



263 



Sea. If we turn around, so as to face the north, we 
behold the level country lose itself in the distance. 
But close at hand appears the miserable village of 
Arab huts, which occupy a little space on the site of 
the ancient Jericho ; and several spots of beautiful 
vegetation, here and there improved into gardens, 
mark the course which the streams from Elisha's 
Fountain, a little distant, still maintain through the 
surrounding barrenness. If we cast our eyes to the 
West, the huge, precipitous mountain of Quarantania, 
at the distance of only three miles > stands full before 
us, and lifts to heaven those naked cliffs, whence, 
tradition says, the tempter showed our Saviour all the 
kingdoms of this world. Looking past the southern 
side of the mountain, we discover, a little farther off, 
in the way to Jerusalem, the wild congregation of 
barren hills that form tbe boundary of the plain. 
Rising just behind the first range, are seen tops of 
rifted and shapeless mountains, among whose deep 
and tremendous ravines, lies, hidden from our view, 
the Desert of the Temptation. Far in the rear, 
beyond a succeeding tract of less elevation, and of 
less sterility, we might perhaps descry, through some 
fortunate opening, the low, triple summits of Mount 
Olivet, at the distance of eighteen miles to the south- 
west, shutting out the city of Jerusalem from the 
eastern prospect. 

As we turn round to the left, from the quarter of 
Mount Olivet, with our backs upon Jericho, the eye 
still ranges along the broken mass of hills, a few 
miles southward, where the plain terminates at their 
bases, or is invaded by their more advanced and sep- 



264 



THE ANCIENT HISTORY 



arate crags. Beyond them, we catch the glimpse of 
remoter eminences, appearing here and there above 
the horizon, and by their dismal whiteness betraying 
the solitude and decay which reign in the interior. 
Traversing, with a sidelong glance, the successive 
ridges down to the left, as they approach the Dead 
Sea, we perceive their height gradually increasing to 
the very brink, where they suddenly fall off, to make 
room for the bed of the lake. The lake itself may 
be seen, still farther around to the eastward, coming 
up into the limits of the plain ; and nothing but an 
intervening promontory shuts out, from our eye, the 
whole expanse of waters spreading southward to 
undiscernible distance. 

From our post of observation, it is but five or six 
miles, over a sandy tract, to the nearest part of the 
Dead Sea ; and if, quitting the fields of Jericho, we 
now proceed thither, and follow the shore down to 
the South, we come at length to the mountainous 
border already surveyed. Here we enter on a wide 
beach, which runs the whole remaining length, per- 
haps, of the lake, between the margin of the waves 
and the lofty battlement of cliffs on the West. Ad- 
vancing along this desolate valley, we traverse heaps 
of sand, and patches of dry mud, covered thick with 
salt ; and sometimes a solitary and stunted shrub 
shakes the dust from its scanty foliage, in the wind. 
On our right, we see the towering masses of rock still 
bearing onward, but frequently broken by huge chasms 
that wind in many intricacies through their heavy 
range. The dreary lake now spreads full before us> 
to the South ; but its extremity is beyond the reach 



OF UNIVERSALISM. 



265 



of the eye. To the East, however, we see its con- 
tracted breadth, at the distance of ten or fifteen miles, 
bounded by the dark, and to appearance, perpendicu- 
lar mountains of Arabia, which stand on the opposite 
shore like a stupendous wall. Not a solitary peak 
seems to break the uniformity of their continuous 
summit ; we only perceive slight inflections, here and 
there, as though the hand of the painter, who drew 
this horizontal line across the sky, had sometimes 
trembled in the bold execution. 

After following the wide strand or valley for six or 
eight miles, to the South, we may turn to the right, 
and seek our way up the precipices. Arrived at the 
summit of the range, the whole country, as far as 
Mount Olivet in the north-west, the hills of Bethle- 
hem in the West, and those of Tekoa in the south- 
west, bursts at once in desolate majesty, upon our 
sight. Plains and narrow glens without verdure or 
inhabitant, hills whose aged rocks are themselves 
decaying into dust, sharp ridges and misshapen points 
in the distance, fill up the scene. Throughout a large 
part of this tract, the spirit of religious madness, of 
fanatical seclusion, might find accommodations in the 
profound labyrinths channelled out between solid cliffs, 
and in numerous caverns, some of them almost inac- 
cessible. Even close around the summit on which 
we stand, we may look down into chasms that sink to 
the very base. 

If we look to the North, the plain of Jericho 
appears ; if to the South, the concourse of mountains 
stretches off beyond the outlet of the Cedron, and 
finally fades in the prospect amidst the vast Desert of 
23 



266 



THE ANCIENT HISTORY 



Ruba. Below us, to the West, extends a considera- 
bly wide plain, through which, in ancient times, lay 
the road from Jericho to Hebron. Descending from 
the heights, and crossing this open space westwardly, 
our course runs among little hillocks of chalk and 
sand, and some scattered patches of herbage ; till, at 
the end of three miles, we come to the boundary. 
Here we beo-in to climb through the narrow gorges of 
another chain of mountains, white, arid, and dusty; 
and not a solitary shade, not a plant, not even the 
last effort of vegetation, a single tuft of moss, meets 
the eye as we proceed. Four or five miles, in the 
same direction, brings us to the edge of the long, tre- 
mendous chasm, through which, in the rainy season, 
gushes the torrent Cedron, on its south-eastward 
course from Jerusalem to the Dead Sea. Through a 
sudden opening, that city itself may be descried, 
looking like a confused heap of rocks, nearly a dozen 
miles to the north-west ; and the naked summits that 
rise on every quarter above us, command a prospect 
of the eastern lake. Proceeding, now, a small dis- 
tance up the channel of the Cedron, we discover, in 
its very bed, and two or three hundred feet below us, 
the ancient monastery of St. Sabas, surrounded with 
numerous cells in the precipices, and still occupied as 
a convent. 1 

11 For the account of this region, see Relandi Palaestina Illus- 
trata ; Pococke's Description of the East, Vol. ii. Part 1. pp. 
30—45; Sandys's Travels, Book iii. Maundrell's Journey to 
Jerusalem ; Dr. E. D. Clark's Travels through Greece, Egvpt 
and the Holy Land, Chap. 17, 18; and Chateaubriand's Travels, 
Part iii. Several striking hints may be gathered from Cyrilli 
Scythopolitani Vita S. Sabas, inter Coteleri Mon. Eccl. Graecre 
Tom, iii. See, also, as the best work on Palestine, Robinson'* 
Biblical Researches, &c. 



OF UNIVERSALISM. 



267 



II. At the beginning of the sixth cen- 
a. d. 500. tury, this great solitude had long been 
peopled with monks. Many lauras, or 
collections of recluse cells and caverns, were prepared 
in different quarters ; and monasteries, or regular con- 
vents, were erected in other parts. Of the former, 
the most famous, at this period, was the laura of St. 
Sabas, the remains of which we have just surveyed. 
It was founded, less than twenty years before, by the 
distinguished abbot of that name ; and five or six 
thousand monks had already gathered in the deep 
channel of the Cedron, under the protection of his 
reputed miracles and sanctity, A very successful 
struggle, of more than fifty years, against every natu- 
ral mode of human existence, had conferred on Sabas 
a venerable preeminence over the whole desert ; and 
a mild and patient temper gave his authority a sort of 
fatherly character. With these qualifications, it is no 
wonder that the scrupulous exactness of his faith, the 
wretchedness of his appearance, and the supposed 
gifts of commanding rain from heaven, and of shutting 
the mouths of wild beasts, should make him known 
abroad, in that age, as " the light and ornament of all 
Palestine." 

Between the years 501 and 506, an 
a. d. 501, old 2 difficulty broke out anew in the 
— 506. midst of his own laura. Forty of his 
monks became greatly dissatisfied ; and 
he, who seldom contended with opposition, left the 
place and retired to a cave near Scythopolis. After 

2 > Vit. Sabse cap, 19. 



268 



THE ANCIENT HISTORY 



awhile he returned ; but finding the malecontents 
increased now to the number of sixty, and grow r n 
utterly irreconcileable, he again departed. This sud- 
den and unexpected absence gave his enemies occa- 
sion to flatter themselves, at least to report, that he 
was devoured by wild beasts ; and, going to Jerusa- 
lem, they entreated Elias, the bishop of that city, to 
appoint them another abbot. Their report, however, 
did not gain credit ; and Elias was by no means dis- 
appointed, when, some time afterwards, he beheld 
Sabas himself, with several disciples from his new 
retirement, enter the Holy City, on the anniversary 
festival of the Dedication of the Temple. The 
bishop solemnly adjured him to return to his laura, 
and wrote a letter to the monks there, commanding 
them to receive him with honors, and submit to his 
authority. But when Sabas arrived and produced 
the letter in public, the disaffected rose in rebellion, 
assailed one of the buildings in their wrath, and 
overthrew it into the torrent. The rioters, to the 
number of sixty, then took their course over the 
hills, south-westwardly, to the laura of Succa, prob- 
ably about eight or ten miles distant. 3 Applying 
there in vain for admittance, they proceeded onwards, 
till they entered the deep valley under the southern 
side of the hill on which stood the ruined village of 
Tekoa. Here, finding a little water, and some old 

3 - The laura of Sueca was not far from Tekoa, either to the 
North or to the South ; (compare Vit. Sabse cap. 36, with Vit. 
Cyriaci, inter Cotelerii Mon. Eccl. Graecse Tom. iv. pp. 117, 118.) 
but in which of these directions, cannot be determined. The 
form of the expression, however, in Vit. Saba?, seems to intimate 
that it was towards the laura of Sabas from Tekoa. 



OF UNIVERSALISM. 



269 



forsaken cells, they took up their abode, and called 
the place Nova Laura, or the new laura. # Having 
no church, they were obliged, for awhile, to hold 
their public exercises in an old one at Tekoa, ded- 
icated to the ancient prophet Amos, once an inhabi- 
tant of this village. 4 Sabas, having obtained informa- 
tion of the place of their retreat, visited them with 
necessary supplies ; and procuring afterwards, from 
Elias at Jerusalem, a sum of gold for the purpose, 
he built them a church, and dedicated 
a. d. 507. it in A. D. 507, His beneficence seem- 
ed to reconcile them ; and they allowed 
him to place over their laura a superior, who governed 
it in quiet for seven years. 5 

Ill, On the death of this overseer, 
a. d. 514. his successor admitted, through ignorance 
it is said, four Origenists ; of whom the 
chief were Nonnus, whose earlier history is entirely 
unknown, and one Leontius of Byzantium, or Con- 
stantinople. Their distinguishing tenet appears to 
have been the pre-existence of human souls ; but to 
this, it seems, we must add that of universal restora- 
tion. 0 Both these opinions, however, remained undis- 

* I think Nova Laura must have been in what is now called 
Wady Jehar. (See Robinson's Bib. Researches, vol. ii. p. 185.) 
It was in a deep valley, not far to the South of Tekoa. 

4 - Amos i. 1. 5 - Vit. Sabae cap. 33—36. 6 - That Nonnus 
and Leontius were Universalists is not absolutely certain, though 
very probable. I here subjoin the best evidence I have found of 
the fact: 1. Symeon Metaphrastes, a Greek writer of the tenth 
century, who recomposed the lives of the saints from the original 
documents, but who is by no means indisputable authority, ad- 
duces, in his Life of Cyriacus, (Cotelerii Mon. Eccl. Graecoe Tom. 
iv. pp. 117, 118.) the testimony of Cyrill of Scythopolis, a credi- 
ble witness, that Nonnus and Leontius avowed the doctrines of 
pre-existence and Universal Restoration. 2. Cyrill himself, who 

23* 



270 



THE ANCIENT HISTORY 



covered, at least unreproved, for about six months ; 
when a new superior, the third in succession, being 
appointed at Nova Laura, soon detected the alarming 
doctrine, and, by the authority of Elias of Jerusalem, 
expelled the believers. They retired to other parts of 

the country, and propagated their senti- 
a. d. 517. merits in silence. Two or three years 

afterwards, Elias himself was deposed 
amid some of the ecclesiastical revolutions which, in 
the East, yet followed the Nestorian controversy of the 
preceding century ; and when John succeeded to the 
bishopric of Jerusalem, the Origenists came and asked 
to be restored to their laura. But he, being informed 
by Sabas of their heresy, denied their request. Leon- 
tius, indeed, was received, at length, into the great 
laura of Sabas himself; but the moment he became 
known, the aged father drove him away. 

Better fortune, how r ever, awaited the outcasts : Not 
many years afterwards, one Mamas, on succeeding 
to the care of Nova Laura, admitted, it seems without 

by the way, was a monk of Sabas's Laura, and a cotemporary of 
JNonnus and Leontius, invariably represents them as teaching 
Pre-existence ; and he also says (Vit. Saba cap. 36,) that they 
derived it from Origen, Evagrius and Didymus. Now, in the 
doctrine of these fathers the two notions of Pre-existence and 
Restoration were so inseparably connected, as the beginning and 
end of their system, that whoever followed them in one, could 
hardly avoid adopting the other. 3. Domitian, archbishop of 
Galatia, a convert and patron of Nonnus and Leontius, was cer- 
tainly an advocate of both these notions; (Facundi Hermianensis 
Defens. Trium Capit. inter Sirmondi Opp. Tom. ii. pp. 3S4, 385,) 
and Facundus, a cotemporary, observes that it was particularly 
on account of these tenets that his party was accused. Several 
other circumstances might be mentioned in favor of their Univer- 
salism ; and nothing, so far as I know, can be found to the con 
trary. 



OF UNIVERSALIS!*!. 



271 



hesitation, 7 Nonnus, Leontius, and their party to the 
cordial fellowship of the brotherhood. There fol- 
lowed such an increase of Origenism in the country, 
as to produce considerable uneasiness ; and an oppor- 
tunity soon offered of introducing the affair to the 
attention of the ambitiously orthodox emperor Justi- 
nian : Some public grievances rendering it necessary 
to send an agent to the court of Constantinople, the 
bishops of Palestine unanimously deputed Sabas, 
whose sanctity had long been venerated in the im- 
perial palace, and known throughout all the East. 
He accordingly visited the capital ; and, having ac- 
complished his business, was about to 
a. d. 531. take his leave, when the doting emperor 
humbly asked what revenues he should 
bestow on the monasteries and lauras of the desert, 
in order to secure their prayers for himself and his 
government. c Grant the petitions that I have 
c brought,' replied the abbot, ' and in recompense 
' God will add to your dominions, Africa, Rome, 
6 and the whole of the western empire ; upon one 
6 condition, however, — that you deliver the churches 
c from the three heresies of Arius, Nestorius, and 
c Origen.' The obedient emperor loaded him with 
gifts, promised whatever he desired, and anathema- 
tized those heresies ; but whether he then issued 
any special decree against them, does not appear, 8 

7 - Cyrill says (Vita Sabae,) that Mamas did not know their 
sentiments; but how eould he be ignorant, after the previous 
disturbances ? 

8 - Vit. Sabae cap. 36; and 70—74. Fleury's Eccl. History, 
Book xxxiii. chap. 3. 



272 



THE ANCIENT HISTORY 



IV. Sabas died at his laura, in the end 
a. d. 532. of the year 531, soon after his return from 
Constantinople ; and the Origenists of 
Nova Laura, feeling themselves relieved from the op- 
pression of his great authority, began to propagate 
their doctrine, with less reserve. Their success was, 
if possible, more than proportioned to their zeal. In 
a short time they converted all the most learned in 
their own cells, placed their partizans over some of 
the neighboring monasteries, spread their opinions 
through several large communities of monks in the 
desert, and established them even in the great laura of 
Sabas, 

Among their adherents, perhaps among the new 
converts, were two persons, introduced now for the 
first time to our notice, who afterwards rose to con- 
siderable eminence, and bore a distinguished part in 
the ecclesiastical history of the period. Domician w T as 
abbot of a monastery in a desert ; and Theodorus 
Ascidas was deacon, or one of the principal officers, 
of Nova Laura. Both were Origenists ; both, proba- 
bly Universalists, — such, at least, did Domitian avow 
himself. 9 Going, about this time, to Constantinople, 

9 - Facundus, acotemporary author, says (Defens. Trium Capitul. 
Lib. iv. cap. 4, inter Sirmondi Opp. Tom. ii. pp. 384, 385,) " Do- 
"mitian, formerly bishop of Ancyra in Galatia, writing a book to 
" Pope Vigilius, complained of those who contradicted the doc- 
" trine of Origen, that human souls existed before the body in a 
"certain happy state, and that all who are consigned to everlast- 
" ing torments shall be restored, together with the devil and his 
t< angels, to their primeval blessedness. Domitian also asserts 
" that. 4 they have even anathematized the most holy and renowned 
" doctors, on account of those things which were agitated in favor 
u 0 j Pre- existence, and Universal Restoration. This they have 
" done under pretence of condemning Origen ; hut in reality, con- 
" demning all the saints icho were before him, and who have leen 



OF UNIVERSALIS*!. 



273 



they were accompanied by Nonnus and Leontius ; 
and, through the recommendation of the latter, who 
seems to have had some influence in his native city, 
our two adventurers obtained the patronage of Euse- 
bius, a favorite bishop at court. By his means, they 
were then introduced to the emperor himself ; and, 
concealing their sentiments and peculiar attachments, 
they so far won the partiality of Justinian, that he 
placed them over the two extensive bishoprics in Asia 
Minor. Domitian was elevated to that of Galatia, 
and immediately ordained at its metropolitan city, An- 
cyra ; Theodorus Ascidas, at Cesarea, in the large 
and influential see of Cappadocia, was seated on the 
same episcopal throne which had been honored by the 
ancient, and perhaps more worthy fathers, Firmilian 
and Basil the Great. Neither of the new prelates, it 
would seem, spent much of their time in their respec- 
tive diocesses ; but, following the fashion of that age, 
resorted, among a crowd of other bishops, to the court 
of Constantinople, and there engaged in the intrigues 
of the palace and of the church. Theodorus long 
maintained a considerable ascendancy over the meas- 
ures, though not over the faith, of the royal polemic 
himself, and frequently perverted the imperial authori- 
ty to purposes, which, if discovered, would have been 
instantly condemned. Amidst the honors to which he 
had been advanced, and the splendor with which he 
was surrounded, he did not forget his old associates in 
the solitude of Palestine, but continued to exert, in 
their behalf, all the influence he dared to employ in 

" after him." This book of Domitian was written, probably, 
about the year 546, or a little after. 



274 



THE ANCIENT HISTORY 



such a cause. Nor were they, on their part, uncon- 
scious of the increased advantages they might derive 
from the countenance, however cautiously granted, of 
two powerful friends at court. Emboldened by the 
patronage, and encouraged by their good fortune, the 
Origenists labored with redoubled energy, and in a 
short time succeeded in diffusing their doctrine through 
the whole of Palestine ; an undertaking which was the 
more readily accomplished on account of the former 
prevalence of Origenism in the country. 10 

V. About five years after the death of Sabas, his 
second successor, Gelasius, on being elected over the 
great laura, determined to check the prevailing her- 
esy among his own flock ; and, to this end, he consult- 
ed a few of his yet orthodox brethren, and appointed 
the Treatise, of An ti pater of Bostra against Origen, 
to be read publicly in the church. But this indignity 
only provoked a disturbance ; and Gela- 
a. d. 537. sius soon found it necessary, in prosecu- 
ting his scheme, to expel some of the 
leaders of the opposition, among whom was one of 
his deacons. It was too late, however, for violent 
measures ; the expulsion of their leaders roused the 
spirit of the rest, and forty others were soon afterwards 
driven away. The outcasts repaired immediately to 
Nova Laura, where they enjoyed the protection of 
Nonnus, Leontius, and their brethren, and assisted in 
propagating their faith among the various monasteries 
in the neighborhood. 11 The next year, Eusebius, the 

10 - Vit, Sabee cap. 77—83, »■ Cyrill's story (Vit. Sabae cap. 84,) of 
their hostile expedition for the purpose of destroying the great laura, 
of the supernatural darkness which blinded and misled them so that 
they could not find the well-known place, &c. is incredible, unless 



OF UNIVERSALISM. 



275 



episcopal courtier who had introduced Domitian and 
Theodorus to Justinian, happened at Je- 
a. d. 538. rusalem ; and Leontius, in company with 
the outcasts from the great laura, em- 
braced the opportunity to carry before him a com- 
plaint against the abbot, for their expulsion. The 
haughty bishop assumed the seat of judgement ; and 
sending for Gelasius, ordered him either to receive the 
Origenists, or else to expel their accusers. The 
timid, or perhaps politic, abbot returned, upon this, to 
the laura of Sabas, and choosing the latter alternative, 
dismissed six of his orthodox monks, probably with 
their own consent. These, however, went directly to 
Antioch, related to Ephraim, the powerful archbishop 
of that city, the affair of Origenism in Palestine, and 
showed him the books of Antipater of Bostra against 
the doctrine. Ephraim immediately called a provin- 
cial synod at Antioch, and procured, for the first time 
since the days of Theophilus and Jerome, an anathe- 
ma against the heresy ; but on what particular points, 
is unknown. 

When the news of this procedure reached Palestine, 
the Origenists were, of course, alarmed. Leontius had 
sailed for Constantinople ; but Nonnus went to Peter, 
the present bishop of Jerusalem, and importuned him to 
erase the name of Ephraim from the sacred diptychs, 
or official registers of bishops in fellowship and com- 
munion. Leontius at Constantinople also exerted his 
influence to procure the excommunication of the arch- 
bishop of Antioch \ and Domitian and Theodorus 

we admit, with him, the miraculous interference of the deceased 
Sabas. 



276 



THE ANCIENT HISTORY 



strove to compel the patriarch of Jerusalem to execute 
the proposed measure, Already was there a strong 
disaffection against Peter, among the monks of the 
desert ; and, to screen himself from the indignation 
which, it was easy to foretell, the course he had 
adopted would arouse, he contrived to procure some 
of the orthodox abbots to write a tract against Ori- 
genism, and in favor of Ephraim of Antioch. This 
was, accordingly, composed, and presented to him ; 
and Peter immediately directed it, together with some 
writings of his own, pointing out the heresies and the 
disorders of the Origenists, to the emperor Justinian at 
Constantinople. The monks, entrusted with these 
documents, arrived at the imperial city, attached 
themselves to the deacon Pelagius, legate from the 
Pope of Rome, and an enemy to Theodorus ; and, 
by their united exertions, soon succeeded in laying 
the matter in form before the emperor. 12 

VI. Justinian, who had now sat about a dozen 
years on the throne of the eastern empire, was one 
of the few sovereigns whose ruling ambition has been 
to shine in theological disputes, and to acquire, by 
superior orthodoxy and austere mortifications, the 
proud epithet of The Pious. Nothing could be 
more gratifying, than this reference of the affair of 
Origenism to his judgement and decision. He lost 
no time, therefore, in ordering a long Edict to be 

drawn up, addressed to Mennas, arch- 
a. d. 539, bishop of Constantinople, and published 
— 540. as early as the year 540. " We are 

told, " says he, " of some who, not hav- 

12 - Vit. Saba? cap. 85. And Fleury's Eccl. Hist. Book xxxiii. 
Chap. 3, 4. 



OF UNIVERSALIS*!. 



277 



" ing the fear of God before their eyes, have forsaken 
" the truth, without which there is no salvation, and 
" departed from the doctrine of the Scriptures and of 
" the catholic fathers, by adhering to Origen, and 
" maintaining his impious notions, which are like 
" those of the Arians, Manicheans, and other here- 
" tics. " He then proceeds to recount, in a formal 
catalogue, and under six heads, the errors attributed 
to Origen : " 1. That the Father is greater than the 
" Son, and the Son greater 'than the Holy Ghost, as 
u the Holy Ghost is superior to other spirits ; and that 
" the Son cannot behold the Father, nor the Holy 
" Ghost see the Son. 2. That the power of God is 
" limited, because he can create and govern only a 
ic certain number of souls, and a certain quantity of 
" matter ; that every species of being was coeternal 
" with the Deity ; that there have already been, and 
" that there will hereafter be, several worlds in suc- 
cession, so that the Creator has never been without 
" creatures. 3. That rational spirits were clothed 
" with bodies, only for their punishment ; and that 
" the souls of men, in particular, were at first pure 
" and holy intelligences, who, becoming weary of 
" divine contemplation, and inclining to evil, were 
" confined in earthly bodies, as a retribution and chas- 
" tisement for their former follies. 4. That the sun, 
" the moon, the stars, and the waters above the heav- 
" ens. are animated and rational creatures. 5. That, in 
" the resurrection, human bodies will be changed into 
" a spherical shape. 6. That wicked men and devils 
" will at length be discharged from their torments, and 
" re-established in their original state," Eacli of 
24 



278 



THE ANCIENT HISTORY 



these six errors, Justinian attempts to refute by au- 
thorities from the Scriptures and fathers ; but he 
directs his labors more particularly against the third, 
concerning pre-existence, and against the sixth, con- 
cerning the Restoration. Then, addressing Hennas, 
he adds, " we therefore exhort you to assemble all the 
" bishops and abbots of Constantinople, and oblige 
" them to anathema lize in writing the impious Origen 
" Adamantius, together with his abominable doctrines, 
" and especially the articles we have pointed out. 
" Send copies of what shall be transacted, to all other 
" bishops and to all superiors of monasteries, that they 
"may follow the example ; and, for the future, let 
" there be no bishops nor abbots ordained, who do not 
u first condemn Origen and all other heretics, accord- 
" to custom. We have already written thus to Pope 
" Vigihus, and to the rest of the patriarchs. " After 
a collection of heretical extracts from the books of Ori- 
gen, the emperor subjoins nine anathemas ; six, against 
the forementioned errors ; and three against the follow- 
ing on the incarnation. " 1. That the human soul of 
" Jesus Christ existed long before it was united to the 
" Word ; 2. That his body was formed, in the virgin 
" before its union either with the Word, or with his 
" own soul ; and 3. That he will, hereafter, be cruci- 
C£ fied for the salvation of the devils. " To conclude, 
there is a tenth anathema against the person of Origen 
and against those of his followers. 13 

13 - See Du Pin's Biblioth. Pat. Vol. v. Art. Hist, of Fifth Gene- 
ral Council. And Fleury's Eccl. Hist. Book xxxiii. chap. 4. I 
know not where to look for an entire copy of this very important 
document, Justinian's Edict to Mennas, except in Harduin's Con- 
cilia, Tom. iii. p. 243 } and this valuable collection is out of my 
reach. 



OF UNIVERSALIS!*. 



279 



This sweeping decree, which aimed full against 
Universalism, went forth, of course, as a law of the 
realm ; and Justinian's ambition to shine in the church 
conspired with his natural jealousy as a sovereign, to 
ensure the rigid enforcement of his orders* Accord- 
ingly, the bishops then residing at Constantinople 
were immediately assembled in council, by the patri- 
arch Mennas, to subscribe the Edict ; and soon after- 
wards, Pope Vigllius at Rome, Zoilus on the archi- 
episcopal throne of Alexandria, Ephraim at Antioch, 
and Peter at Jerusalem, obeyed the mandate and fol- 
lowed the example. Even Domitian of Ancyra and 
Theodoras of Cappadocia, though favorites, were 
obliged to yield to the imperial command : and, 
rather than suffer expulsion, they affixed their names 
to the anathemas which condemned some of their own 
sentiments. 14 

VII. In Palestine, however, there were 
a. d. 540, some bold and determined enough to with- 
to 546. stand the emperor's authority. Alexan- 
der, bishop of Abyla, 15 who is known 
only by the part he bore in this affair, refused to sub- 
scribe the decree ; and Nonnus, together with his 
party in general, remained faithful to their cause, at 
the expense of exclusion from the catholic communion, 
and of banishment from Nova Laura. But their pow- 
erful patron, Theodoras of Cappadocia, soon heard of 
their treatment ; and, sending for certain agents of the 

14 - Fleury's Eccl. Hist. Book xxxiii. cb. 4. And Du Pin's Bib- 
Hoth.Patrum Vol. v. Art. Hist, of Fifth Gen. Council. 15 - There 
were several cities or villages, by the name of Abyla, or Abila,in 
the northern part of Palestine (See Relandi Pala3st Ulust.) and 
this was probably one of them. 



280 



THL ANCIENT HISTORY 



church of Jerusalem who resided at Constantinople, 
he angrily threatened to deprive their bishop, Peter, 
of his see, unless he should give satisfaction to the 
outcasts, and restore them to their former standing. 
At the same time, he sent to Nonnus and his ad- 
herents, advising them to propose to their bishop a 
sort of compromise, in which he should only pro- 
nounce some indefinite form of words, annulling, in 
general terms, all anathemas which were not agree- 
able to the will of God. As the real and manifest 
intent, however, of this equivocal formality, was to 
imply a censure of the emperor's late Edict, Peter 
at first refused ; but, fearing the dangerous influence 
of Theodorus at court, he at length privately pro- 
nounced the sentence, re-admitted the Origenists into 
their laura, and finally appointed two of their leading 
members his suffragans, or bishops in immediate at- 
tendance on his person. Emboldened by the success 
of this attempt, the partizans of Nonnus did not hesi- 
tate openly to preach their doctrine from house to 
house. It would have been honorable to them, had 
they proceeded no farther. But, remembering with 
resentment the indignities they had suffered from the 
orthodox, they unhappily turned back upon them the 
tide of contempt and abuse. Disputes and violent 
altercations were quickly succeeded by blows, which 
fell, of course, on the catholic or weaker party ; for 
whom it soon became unsafe to appear abroad, espec- 
ially in the city of Jerusalem, Finding their numbers 
unequal to the quarrel, they procured a reinforcement 
of a savage race of monks from the banks of the Jor- 
dan. When these arrived at the Holy City, and 



OF UNIVERSALISM. 



281 



joined the orthodox host, an engagement ensued ; but 
the Of.getiists succeeded at last in putting them all to 
flight, and in driving them as far as the great laura of 
Sabas. Here, the vanquished retreated into a fortified 
place, and their pursuers were, in their turn, obliged 
to fly, after one of the most valorous of their enemies 
had fallen, the only victim of the combat. 

The public had long been too familiar with scenes 
of this shameful character, to regard them with the 
abhorrence they merited ; and it was probably the 
urgent motive of self-preservation, alone, which in- 
duced the remnant of the orthodox, in the present 
exigency, to seek the prevention of these disorders. 
Accordingly, Gelasius, the abbot of the great laura, 
set out on a journey to Constantinople, in order to 
lay the affair before Justinian. But Theodorus of 
Cappadocia, having notice of his arrival, contrived 
to prevent all access to the emperor, so that, after 
several ineffectual attempts, Gelasius was obliged to 
depart without accomplishing his purpose. Return- 
ing towards Palestine, he died at a small city in 
Phrygia ; and with him expired, for a season, the 
hopes of the orthodox party in the desert of Judea. 
For, when the monks of the great laura went to 
Jerusalem to ask the appointment of a new abbot, 
the suffragans of Peter, imitating the cunning of The- 
odorus, drove them away ; and immediately all the 
monastic commumties in that region, yielding to the 
strong, popular current, were carried over, by flattery 
or by fear, to the side of Origenism. Even the great 
laura itself submitted, soon afterwards, to an abbot 
appointed by the dominant party ; and the few ortho* 
24* 



282 



THE ANCIENT HISTORY 



dox leaders in the place forsook their long-venerated 
cells, and sought other retreats. But the very day, 
on which the triumphant Origenists saw the feeble 
remnant of their op posers retire, called them also to 

mourn the sudden and unexpected death 
a. d. 546, of Nonnus at Nova Laura. This loss 

was the more severely felt, as Leontius, 
the other chief of the party, had died, a year or two 
before, at Constantinople, What was the real char- 
acter of these two persons, and what their abilities, 
we have no satisfactory means to ascertain. That 
they had considerable influence among the monks, is 
evident ; and that they were feared and hated by 
their opposers, is certain. Should we judge of them, 
however, by their cotemporaries, we could boast nei- 
ther of their intelligence, nor of their peaceable and 
Christian temper. Nonnus had the satisfaction of 
leaving their cause, though proscribed by the govern- 
ment, in a very prosperous condition throughout Pal- 
estine. At the great laura of Sabas, however, the 
orthodox regained an ascendancy, seven months after 
his death, and appointed a new abbot ; who was sue- 
ceeded, in less than a year, by Conon, another of 
their most enterprizing leaders. The loss of this im- 
portant place seemed, soon afterwards, more than 
made up to the Origenists, by a fortunate acquisition 

on their part : Peter, who had always 
a. d. 547, opposed them, died about this time; and, 

by their influence, their friend, Macarius, 
was chosen his successor in the bishopric of Jerusa- 
lem. But their affairs remained, for five or six years, 
unstable and fluctuating, A sedition followed the 



OF UNIVERSALIS*!. 



283 



election of the new prelate ; and Justinian command- 
ed him to be expelled from his see. What was still 
more injurious to their interests, the Origenists them- 
selves had abused their success, and suffered pros- 
perity to cherish a factious spirit, which divided them, 
on some trivial question, into hostile parties. 16 

VIII. Meanwhile, an artful plot was 
a. d. 546, contrived and put in execution, at Con- 
to 553. stantinople ; the particulars of which it is 
necessary to relate, although they have 
no other bearing on the doctrine of Universal Salva- 
tion, than as they led, eventually, to the assembling 
of the Fifth General council. Theodorus of Cappa- 
docia had not forgotten the malicious interference of 
Pelagius, in procuring the late imperial Edict against 
Origen and his doct.ines ; and he resolved to retaliate 
upon his enemy, by taking advantage of some unset- 
tled affairs in the old Nestorian controversy. He 
happened to belong to a party that hated the memory 
of the General council of Chalcedon, held in the mid- 
dle of the last century ; while the Roman legate, on 
the contrary, zealously supported its authority and 
cherished its reputation. To impair its credit, and to 
vex its advocates, Theodorus contrived to procure the 
condemnation of some of the fathers whom it had ap- 
proved. Among those of this class, he found the 
name of Theodorus of Mopsuestia ; and ignorant, 
probably, that he had been, in his day, a Universalist, 
and knowing only that he was celebrated as an oppo- 
ser of Origen, he thought that, by anathematizing 

16 - Vit. Sabse cap. 86—90. Fleury's Eccl. Hist. Book xxxiii. ch. 
20, 40. 



284 



THE ANCIENT HISTORY 



him, he should accomplish, at once, two important 
objects, — that of avenging, in some degree, the late 
indignities inflicted on the memory- of his own favorite 
author ; and that also of bringing disgrace on the ob- 
noxious council. 

Accordingly, he cautiously suggested to his patron, 
the emperor, that he might easily effect a work in 
which he was laboriously engaged, the reconciliation 
of a certain party in the church, merely by con- 
demning Theodorus of Mopsuestia, Theodoret of 
Cyrus, and Ibas of Edessa, together with the writ- 
ings they had left in favor of Nestorianism. Jus- 
tinian had not sufficient penetration to discover the 
subtlety of his adviser ; and, with his characteristic 
officiousness, assumed the authority of pronouncing, 
for the whole church, upon one of the most hazard- 
ous topics he could have selected. But it was 
foreseen that, when he had once promulgated his 
decision, his theological vanity would be security 
against all retraction, and his pride of power a guar- 
antee of his perseverance and final victory. Accord- 
ingly, Theodorus felt already assured of success, 
when he received a command to draw up an Edict 
in the Emperor's name, condemning the fathers in 
question, together with their obnoxious writings ; 
which have since been known by the title of the 
Three Chapters. This Edict was published A. D. 
546, in the form of a Letter addressed to the whole 
catholic church ; and all bishops were required to 
subscribe its anathemas. Most of them, apparently 
against their conscience, complied, after some hesi- 
tation, and were liberally rewarded ; but such as 



OF UNIVERSALISM. 



285 



maintained their integrity and refused, were of course 
banished, A violent and general contention followed, 
for several years. Books were written on both sides. 
The Roman pontiff himself continually shuffled be- 
tween fear of the sovereign's vengeance, and regard 
for the consistency of the church. The passions 
of men grew inflamed, till all Christendom was so 
agitated that the usual expedient became necessary 
in order to allay, or rather to give vent to, the fer- 
mentation. 17 

IX. On the fourth of May, A. D. 553, 
a. d. 553. the Fifth General council was therefore 
opened at Constantinople, under the eye 
of Justinian, by one hundred and fifty-one bishops 
from the Greek and African churches ; and it was 
continued, with the accession of fourteen other bish- 
ops, till the second day of the following month. 
Every thing appears to have been managed, as was 
expected, according to the emperor's pleasure. The 
Three Chapters were condemned with extravagant 
expressions of zeal ; and the person of Theodorus 
of Mopsuestia was anathematized, not for his Uni- 
versalism, but for his alleged Nestorianism. Thus 
far, the artful bishop of Cappadocia saw his plan 
go into complete effect. But he could not stop the 
ponderous machinery which he had put in motion ; 
and he was destined to feel, before the close of its 
operations, that his cunning had overreached itself. 
While he was, in reality, the prime but covert man- 
ager, steadily controling the results, by first suggesting 

17, Fleury's Eccl. Hist. Book xxxiii. ch. 21 — 43. 



286 



THE ANCIENT HISTORY 



to Justinian the course to be pursued, and then dic- 
tating, in his name, to the council, the subject of 
Origenism, entirely foreign from the business of the 
session, is said to have been suddenly brought before 
the obsequious conclave, 18 in spite of ail his efforts to 
the contrary. The emperor's attention had lately 
been directed to it by some incidents in Palestine ; 
certain deputies from Jerusalem, with Conon, the 
Abbot of St. Sabas, at their head, urged its immedi- 
ate consideration ; and Justinian was by no means 
backward to show his zeal and faithfulness in the 
affair. He despatched, it is thought, a message to 
the assembled bishops, exhorting them to examine the 
doctrine of " the impious Grigen," and to condemn 
him and his followers, together with their tenets. As 
a form which they might use in framing their decrees, 
he sent them the long Edict which he had published, 
thirteen or fourteen years befo.e, with its catalogue of 
heresies and of anathemas. 

On the receipt of these papers, the fathers of the 
council, it seems, hastened to pay obedience to the 
request ; and the following decree served at once to 
commend them to their master, and to betray, to the 
eye of the historian, their servility to the imperial 

18 - Here I follow Huet (Origenian. Lib. ii. cap. 4, Sect. iii. § 
14__16,) Fleury (Eccl. Hist. Book xxxiii. ch.40, 51,) and the tes- 
timony of antiquity, in preference to the authority of the modern 
historians, who contend that the affair of Origen, Didymus and 
Evagrius, was not examined in this Council, but only in that 
which was called together, at Constantinople, by Mennas, on 
receiving Justinian's Edict, in a. p. 540. Without incurring the 
charge of pretending to decide this question, I may say, that the 
condemnation of Origen, Didymus and Evagrius, having been 
almost invariably attributed to the Fifth General council, has 
been received in the catholic church with the deference which is 
paid to the decisions of such a body. 



OF UNIVERSALIS^. 



287 



dictation. " Whoever says, or thinks, that the souls 
"of mankind pre-existed as intellectual, holy natures, 
Ci but that growing weary of divine contemplation 
C£ they degenerated to their present character, and 
" were sent into these bodies for the purpose of pun- 
" ishment, let him be anathema. Whoever says, or 
" thinks, that the human soul of Christ pre-existed, 
" and became united to the Word before its incarna- 
tion and nativity of the blessed Virgin, let him be 
" anathema. Whoever says, or thinks, that the body 
"of Christ was first formed in the womb of the holy 
" virgin, and that the Word and his pre-existent hu- 
"man soul were afterwards united with it, let him be 
"anathema. Whoever says, or thinks, that the divine 
cc "Word is to become like the angelic and celestial 
"powers, and thus be reduced to an equality with 
"them, let him be anathema. Whoever says, or 
"thinks, that in the resurrection human bodies are to 
"be of a round, globular form, or whoever will not 
" acknowledge that mankind are to rise in an erect 
" posture, let him be anathema. Whoever says that 
"the sun, the moon, the stars, and the waters above 
" the heavens, are certain animated or intelligent 
" powers, let him be anathema. Whoever says, or 
" thinks, that Christ is to be crucified in the future 
"world for the demons, as he was, in this, for men, 
"let him be anathema. Whoever says, or thinks, 
" that the power of God is limited, and that it has 
" created all that it was able to embrace, let him be 
" anathema. Whoever says, or thinks, that the tor- 
" ments of the demons and of impious men are tem- 
" poral, so that they will, at length, come to an end, or 



288 



THE ANCIENT HISTORY 



"whoever holds a restoration either of the demons or 
"of the impious, let him be anathema. Anathema to 
"Origen Adamantius, who taught these things among 
" his detestable and accursed dogmas ; and to every 
"one who believes these things, or asserts them, or 
"who shall ever dare to defend them in any part, let 
" there be anathema : In Christ Jesus our Lord, to 
" whom be glory forever. Amen." 19 

In addition to these fulminating sentences, an act of 
condemnation is said to have been passed, also, upon 
those writings of Didymus of Alexandria and of Eva- 
grius Ponticus, which advocated pre-existence and 
universal restoration. 20 

X. The decree of a General council 
a. d. 553 was unalterable, and fixed the faith, at 
and 554. least the creed, of the catholic church, 
forever. It only remains, that we men- 
tion the effects of this decision, on the Origenists of 
Palestine. When the condemnatory acts were sent 
to that province, they were subscribed by all the pre- 
lates, except Alexander of Abyla, who was accord- 
ingly expelled from his bishopric. The monks of 
Nova Laura also refused obedience, and withdrew 
from the general communion. The new patriarch of 
Jerusalem, who had been appointed to that see during 
the late council, endeavored to reclaim the dissenters ; 
but, at the end of eight months, finding all persuasion 
vain, he availed himself of the emperor's authority, 
and by force drove the Origenists out of the country. 21 

19 - Summa Conciliorum, Auctore M. L. Bail. Tom. 1. p. 285, 
266. Edit. Paris. 1672. 20 - Vit. Saba? cap. 90, »■ Ditto. 



i 



APPENDIX 



TO THE ANCIENT HISTORY OF UNIVERSALISM. 

[From A. D. 554, to A. D. 1500.] 

I. Having brought the history of Universalisra 
down to its complete and authoritative condemna- 
tion, we may, with all propriety, close the regular 
and connected narrative ; especially as we have 
followed it into the dim twilight preceding the long 
age of darkness. But as curiosity naturally looks 
onwards, with an enquiring eye, through the gloomy 
succession of centuries from the fifth General council 
to the era of the Reformation, I shall here annex 
such notices of the doctrine, during that period, as 
have occurred to me. 

In the first Lateran council, convened 
a. d. 649. at Rome, by Pope Martin I, in the year 

649, against those who asserted but one 
will in Jesus Christ, the fathers repeated the anathe- 
ma against Origen, and his followers, Didymus and 
Evagrius ; who, it will be recollected, had been, con- 
demned only for Universalism. 

The sixth General council, held at 
A. d. 680. Constantinople in A. D. 680, recognized 

for some reason, the condemnation of 
Origen, Didymus and Evagrius : either from a sus- 
picion that the heresy was still cherished ; or else 
from a casualty in the form of expression. The 

25 



290 



APPENDIX. 



principal business of this council, convened like the 
Lateran against the Monothelites, a sect so called 
from some distinguishing notions concerning the two 
natures of Christ, had not the least connexion with 
the subject of Origenism. Yet one of the declara- 
tions reads thus : " We agree with the holy and 
" universal, or general, councils in all things ; espe- 
cially with the last of them, the fifth, which was 
" assembled in this city against Theodoras of Mop- 
" suestia, Origen, Didymus and Evagrius." 

The seventh General council also, 
a. d. 787. which met, A. D. 787, at Nice in 
Biihynia, for the purpose of defending 
and establishing the use of images, relics, &c. in 
churches, has left on its records a sentence that may 
induce a suspicion that Universalism was not quite 
extinct: "we anathematize the fables of Origen, Did- 
"ymus and Evagrius." 

And the eighth General council, at 
a. d. 869. Constantinople in A, D. 869, likewise 
digressed from its proper objects, in order 
to pronounce an " anathema against Origen, who 
"advanced many errors; and against Evagrius and 
"Didymus, who are caught in the same abyss of per- 
dition. 1 " This council was called together on the 
memorable quarrel which resulted in the separation of 
the Greek from the Latin church ; and therefore it 
had no natural concern with the fathers here con- 
demned. 

The introduction of this foreign topic, in these 
successive Synods, is at least a circumstantial evi- 
dence that it was not altogether accidental ; and that 
the obnoxious sentiments were thought to have some 
abettors, probably in the eastern church. 

l « For the sentences extracted from the Sixth, Seventh and 
Eighth Councils, see Hist, de l'Origenisme, par Louis Doucin, 
pp. 321, 322. For the notice of the Lateran Council, see Huetii 
Origenian. Lib. ii. cap. 4. Sect. iii. 17. 



APPENDIX. 



291 



This indication is confirmed by a cir- 
a, d. 713, cumstance that happens to have come 
to 730. to our knowledge.. Germanus, arch- 
bishop of Constantinople in the former 
part of the eighth century, published a book, we 
are told, to confute "the heretical doctrine that 
" the demons shall be restored to their pristine state, 
"and that those who die in their sins, shall, after 
"certain punishments, be gathered into the num- 
" ber of the blest. This impiety, so full of fables, 
"he disproved, first, by the words of the Lord, 
"then by the apostolic decrees; to which lie 
" adds also the testimonies of the prophets, which show 
"clearly that as the enjoyment of the blest is eter- 
" nal and ineffable, so also the punishment of sinners 
" will be endless and infinite. And not only by these 
" testimonies did he confound the profane and poison- 
"ous error, but also by those of the holy fathers ; and 
" particularly by the very writings of him [Gregory 
" Nyssen] whom this heresy perfidiously claimed as its 
" patron. By means of all these authorities, he freed 
" the whole ecclesiastical body from that scheme of 
" fables so pernicious to the soul." In part of his 
book, Germanus undertook the impracticable task of 
showing that the ancient father, Gregory Nyssen, was 
not an advocate of Universalism. The occasion of 
this bold attempt is said to have been " because that 
" they who favored the notion that the demons and 
" the damned might be delivered, endeavored to mix 
"the dark and pernicious poison of Origen's dreams 
" with Gregory's luminous and salutary writings, and 
" strove secretly to add an heretical madness to the 
" virtue and renowned orthodoxy of him whom they 
" knew to be distinguished for doctrine and eloquence, 
"and the bright reputation of whose sanctity they 
"knew was talked of by all." We are likewise told 
that " those books of Gregory which the heretics 
" craftily endeavored to bring to their aid, but which 



292 



APPENDIX. 



" Germanus, the advocate of the truth, had preserved 
" uninjured from their attempts, were The Dialogue 
" concerning the soul: The Catechetical Oration; 
" and the Book concerning a Perfect Life." * 

This account, taken from a writer of the ninth cen- 
tury, who was one of the most renowned ecclesiastical 
critics of all antiquity, shows that, about the time of 
Germanus, the heresy of universal restoration made 
some noise in the East. 

II. In the western church there appeared, among 
several other sectaries, a preacher who claims our 
notice. Clement, a native of Ireland, seems to have 
been regularly ordained a presbyter, or minister, in the 
Romish communion. But he at length discarded its 
superstitions, renounced its authority, and rejected the 
whole mass of ecclesiastical canons, the decrees of the 
councils, and all the treatises and expositions of the 
fathers ; reserving to himself, probably, as the guide 
of his faith, the Bible alone, which was now forbidden 
the people. He taught that Christ, when he descend- 
ed to hell, restored all the damned, even infidels and 
idolators ; and he differed, on what particulars we 
know not, from the catholic doctrine concerning pre- 
destination. Several independent congregations were 
gathered, under his ministry, in part of France and 
Germany ; and such was his progress as to awaken 
the attention of both the civil and ecclesiastical pow- 
ers. In a council of twenty-three bish- 
a. d. 744. ops, assembled A. D. 744, at Soissons in 
France, by king Pepin, Clement was 
deposed from the priesthood, condemned among other 
heretics, and imprisoned. Boniface, archbishop of 
Mentz, and legate of the Holy See, presided, proba- 
bly, in this council ; and he immediately sent to the 
pope an account of the affair. It was soon discovered 

* Photii Bibliothec. Cod. 233. See note (62) to Sect, xviii. of 
the vi. Chap, of this History. 



APPENDIX. 



293 



that Clement had left disciples even among the lower 
orders of the clergy ; and, in a council of seven bishops 
held, the following year, by pope Zachary, at Rome, 
he was again deposed, and anathematized, together 
with his followers, in case they should not renounce 
their error. Two years afterwards, the pope advised 
Boniface to call a council in his neighborhood, and 
ascertain whether Clement and certain other heretics 
would submit to the church ; and, in case of their 
obstinacy, to send them to Rome. It does not appear, 
however, that any thing further was done ; and it is 
probable that Clement died in prison. Boniface re- 
ported that he was guilty of adultery; 2 but, as some 
such accusation was the customary expedient of the 
catholics on similar occasions, the story is unworthy 
of notice. Mosheim says, that " by the best and 
"most authentic accounts, Clement was much better 
" acquainted with the true principles and doctrines of 
" Christianity, than Boniface himself; and hence he 
"is considered by many as a confessor and sufferer for 
" the truth, in this barbarous age," 3 Priestly also 
thinks "it is probable that, if his sentiments and con- 
" duct were fully known, he would be ranked with the 
" most early reformers." 4 

III, The greatest scholar, and perhaps 
a. d. 850, the most philosophical genius, of the ninth 
— 870. century, was John Scotus Erigena, a na- 
tive of Ireland, or of Scotland. At an 
early age, he visited Greece, especially Athens, and 
studied the Oriental as well as classic literature. On 
his return, he was invited, by Charles the Bald, to the 
court of France ; where he probably continued till 

2 - Fleury's Eccl. Hist. xlii. ch. 39, 50, 52, 53, 54, 58. The 
orthodox enthusiast, Milner, applauds the soul-saving zeal of 
Boniface on this occasion ; and commends the discipline inflicted 
upon Clement and his associates. See his Hist, of the Church, 
Cent. viii. ch. 4. 

3 - Mosheim's Eccl. Hist. Cent. viii. Pt. ii. ch. 5. § 2 

4 - Priestlev's Hist, of the Church. Period xv. Sect. v. p. 181. 

25* 



294 



APPENDIX. 



his death, notwithstanding the accounts of his removal 
to England, on the request of Alfred the Great, to 
take charge of the college which that prince had 
founded at Oxford. His favorite study, it appears, 
was philosophy, in which he followed the doctrines of 
the New Platonism : that all things proceeded from 
God, and will eventually return to him. He distin- 
guished himself, however, as an ecclesiastical w 7 riter. 
In this character, his influence was so hostile to the 
corrupt doctrines of that day, and especially to the 
papal hierarchy, that the court of Rome threatened to 
arraign him. He wrote against Transubstantiation, 
and the Augustinian scheme of Predestination ; and it 
is said that he taught the opinion of Origen concern- 
ing the end of the punishment of the damned, and the 
final restoration of all fallen creatures.* He is classed 
among the mystic philosophers and theologians. 

IV. From about the year 850, for two centuries 
onwards, both the Greek and the Roman or Latin 
churches enjoyed, within their respective communions, 
the golden age of profound ignorance and undisturbed 
orthodoxy. One of the most learned and impartial of 
the catholic historians says, " in this age of the church, 
" there were no controversies concerning articles of 
" faith, or doctrinal points of divinity, because there 
" were no heretics, nor other inquisitive persons, who 
" refined upon matters of religion, or undertook to 
" dive to the bottom, of its mysteries. The sober part 
" contented themselves with yielding implicit faith to 
" whatever the churchmen thought fit to deliver from 
"the pulpit ; and as for the profligate wretches, they 
" abandoned themselves to gross sensualities for the 
" gratification of their brutal appetites, rather than to 

* As authorities for his Universalism, the Rev. T. J Sawyer 
has kindly furnished me with the following references : Doeder- 
lein, Institut. Theol. Christ. Vol. ii. p. 2C2. D. J. Otto Thiess 
ueber d. bibl. u. lurch. Lehrmeinung von Ewigkeit d. Hoellen- 
strafen, s. 24. 



APPENDIX. 



295 



" the vices of the mind, to which none but ingenious 
" persons are liable. Therefore, in this age of dark- 
less and ignorance, the church, not being disturbed 
" upon account of its doctrines, had nothing to do but 
" to suppress the enormities which abounded with 
" regard to discipline and manners." 5 A protestant 
historian shall describe to us the real character of this 
church, so unmolested by error, at this period : " Both 
" in the eastern and western provinces, the clergy 
" were, for the most part, composed of a most worth- 
less set of men, shamefully illiterate and stupid, igno- 
"rant more especially in religious matters, equally 
" enslaved to sensuality and superstition, and capable 
"of the most abominable and flagitious deeds. This 
" dismal degeneracy of the sacred order was, accord- 
ing to the most credible accounts, principally owing 
" to the pretended chiefs and rulers of the universal 
"church, who indulged themselves in the commission 
"of the most odious crimes, and abandoned them- 
selves to the lawless impulse of the most licentious 
"passions, without reluctance or remorse; who con- 
" founded, in short, all difference between just and 
" unjust, to satisfy their impious ambition ; and whose 
"spiritual empire was such a diversified scene of 
" iniquity and violence, as never was exhibited under 
"any of those temporal tyrants, who have been the 
"scourges of mankind." 6 "Both Greeks and Latins 
" placed the essence and life of religion, in the wor- 
" ship of images and departed saints ; in searching 
" after, with zeal, and preserving, with a devout care 
"and veneration, the sacred relics of holy men and 
" women ; and in accumulating riches upon the priests 
" and monks, whose opulence increased with the pro- 
gress of superstition. Scarcely did any Christian 
"dare to approach the throne of God, without first 
" rendering the saints and images propitious by a 

6 - Du Pin's Eccl. Hist. Vol. viii. ch. 6. 6 - Mosheim's Eccl. 
Hist. Cent. x. Pt. 2. ch. ii. 1. 



296 



APPENDIX. 



" solemn round of expiatory rites and lustrations. 
66 The ardor, also, with which relics were sought, sur- 
" passes almost all credibility : it had seized all ranks 
" and orders among the people, and was grown into a 
"sort of fanaticism and phrenzy ; and, if the monks 
"are to be believed, the supreme Being interposed, in 
"an especial and extraordinary manner, to discover to 
u doating old wives, and bareheaded friars, the places 
"where the bones or carcasses of the saints lay dis- 
" persed or interred." 7 Such was the age of midnight 
darkness. 

V. But, though no new heresies, so called, arose at 
this period within the two vast communities which ar- 
rogated to themselves the appellation of The, Church, 
yet one earlier and very powerful sect, that of the 
Paulicians, still existed in the East, and, under seve- 
ral names, w T as spread in the West. It is in this he- 
terogenous body that modern historians 8 have sought, 
with some appearance of success, for the embryo 
germ of the Reformation ; and it is among the same 
people that we may discover some vague elements of 
Universalism, confused and doubtful indeed at first, 
but afterwards assuming a more distinct character, 
and coming out into more decided results. The Pau- 
licians were, at once, descendants and dissenters, from 
the Manicheans ; with whose Gnosticism they were 
considerably tainted, while they rejected the name 
with the utmost abhorrence. " Extraordinary as it 

7 - Ditto, ch. iii. 1. 

8 - Mosheim (Eccl. Hist. Cent. x. Part 2. eh. v. 2. and Cent. xi. 
Part 2. eh. v. compared with Cent. xii. Part 2. ch. v. &c.) has traced 
the Paulicians down into the Albanenses, Albigenses, Cathari &c. 
&c. Gibbon (Decline and Fall &c.ch. liv.) has followed the same 
line of descent, and connected them with the Reformation; and so 
has Priestly (Hist, of the church, Period xviii. Sect. vii. pp. 102 — 
104, &c.) Milner doubts their relation to the forerunners of the 
Reformation, because he is not convinced of their dispersion 
through Europe (Hist, of the Church, Cent. ix. ch. 2;) but he is 
confident that they were very good saints. Catholic historians 
agree fully with Gibbon, as it regards their connexion with the 
Reformers. 



APPENDIX. 



297 



" may appear, the same general principles, from 
" which were derived, in the very age of the apostles, 
" the earliest corruptions of the Christian doctrine, 
" were the means of bringing about the reformation of 
" Christianity ; and having effected this purpose, they 
" are now become extinct. " 9 

Of the rise, doctrine, and progress of this sect, 
many particulars are very uncertain ; but we may 
venture to follow, with some confidence, one of the 
most clear sighted masters of history, 10 whose account 
has, in the present affair, been commended both by 
the liberal and the bigoted, by the Protestant and the 
Catholic, notwithstanding his general hostility to re- 
vealed religion. About the year 660, we 
A. d. 660. first discover this people, in considerable 
numbers, spreading quietly from the 
neighborhood of Samosata, in the upper region of 
the Euphrates, northeastwardly through Armenia, 
and northwardly through Cappadocia and Pontus, 
Descended from the Gnostics, who had never been 
affected with the gradual corruptions of the Catholics, 
they abhorred the use of images, of relics, pompous 
ceremonies, and ecclesiastical domination ; and they 
even dispensed with the rites of water baptism and 
the Lord's supper. Their preachers were distinguish- 
ed from their brethren by no title ; and no superiority 
was allowed, except what arose from the austerity of 
their lives, their zeal or their knowledge. The Man- 
ichean books they rejected, and likewise the Jewish, 
as they called the Old Testament ; but the New Tes- 
tament, which in the orthodox church had almost dis- 
appeared from the laity, they received as the only 

9 - Priestly's Hist, of the Church, Period xviii. Sect. vii. pp. 103, 
104. 10 - Gibbon's Decline and Fall &c. ch. liv. Milner says 
" the candor of Gibbon is remarkable in this part of his history. 
" O, si sic omnia ! " and the learned Charles Butler (Book of the 
Roman Catholic Church, Note at the end of Letter xii.) thinks 
this the most interesting chapter of his work. 



298 



APPENDIX, 



volume of sacred Scripture, and enjoined its diligent 
perusal on all the people. It is probable, however, 
that they disowned the two Epistles of St. Peter, and 
the Revelation of St. John ; and it is certain that 
their favorite books were the writings of St. Paul, 
from whom they, perhaps, took their name of Paulici- 
ans. Still, they held the Manichean notion of two 
original Principles, the Good and the Bad ; and they 
looked forward to the triumph of the former over his 
rival, either by the entire abolition, 11 or partial con- 
quest, of death, sin and misery. The body with 
which Christ was seen upon earth, together with 
his crucifixion, they supposed to have been apparent 
only ; and of course it is probable that they denied 
his real resurrection, and that of mankind. 

VI. Their Oriental notions might, 
a. r>. 670, with propriety, be disliked by the church, 
to 845. But the downright simplicity of their insti- 
tutions, their total disrespect of images and 
relics, their contempt of all those artifices by which 
the craft got their living, kindled against them the 
most implacable hatred ; and the orthodox emperors 
of the East resolved on their complete extermination. 
For an hundred and fifty years, they sustained a bloody 
persecution, with a patience and inoffensive meekness 
that converted even some of their executioners. But 
all human endurance may at length be overcome ; 
and when that sanguinary zealot, the empress Theo- 
dora, succeeded to the regency of the East, during her 
son's minority, she drove them beyond the bounds of 
forbearance. In those parts of Asia Minor where 
they abounded, and in Armenia, she confiscated their 
goods, and put to death by the sword, the gibbet and 

H - I have ventured, without any express authority, to attribute 
to them a difference of opinion among themselves, on this point ; 
because such seems to have been the case with their predecessors, 
the Manicheans and other Gnostics, and also with their descen- 
dants, the Albigenses &c. 



APPENDIX. 



299 



the flames, more than a hundred thousand of their 
number, making them expire slowly by a variety of 
the most excruciating torments. Those who escaped 

the horrible massacre, fled immediately 
a. d, 845, for refuge to the Saracens, accepted with 
to 880. gratitude permission to build a city on 

the frontiers of Armenia, and entered 
into an alliance with their Mahometan protectors. 
They soon gathered an army, and marched back to 
avenge, on the Greeks, the sufferings of their martyr- 
ed brethren. The war was carried on with alternate 
advantage, about forty years ; but, towards the close 
of the century, the power of the Paulicians was effec- 
tually broken, and they were obliged to seek security 
in the fastnesses of the Armenian mountains. 

But they had already obtained a permanent footing 
in Europe. About the middle of the preceding cen- 
tury, in the midst of those persecutions they so pa- 
tiently endured, a colony of them was transported, by 
one of the Greek emperors, from Asia to Thrace, 
westward of Constantinople. With a zeal which no 
sufferings could repress, they labored successfully to 
diffuse their doctrine among their northern neighbors, 
the Bulgarians, in the lower region of the Danube. 
After sustaining many hardships and cruelties for more 

than two hundred years, they were, at 
a. d. 970, length, reinforced by another and very 
to 1100. numerous colony from Armenia; and 

they were also privileged with a full 
toleration of their faith. In course of time, they 
occupied a line of villages and castles from Thrace 
westwardly through Macedonia and Epirus ; and by 
the various chances of trade, of emigration and per- 
secution, they became scattered in small numbers, 
over all Europe. Their Manichean or oriental prin- 
ciples would have been, perhaps, a fatal preventive to 
the reception of their faith among the people of the 
West, had it not been counteracted by the simplicity 



300 



APPENDIX. 



of their religious institutions. A strong though secret 
discontent had been generally provoked by the ava- 
rice, the despotism, the mummery and the dissolute- 
ness of the church of Rome ; and when the oppressed 
and neglected populace beheld a sect of professed 
Christians blameless in their lives,, humble in their 
demeanor, and disclaiming all tyranny over the con- 
sciences of men. the spectacle was so attractive to 
many that they became partial converts to the new 
system, and adopted even its doctrines, though with 
various modifications. From this amalgamation arose 
all those sects of the eleventh, twelfth, thirteenth, and 
fourteenth centuries, which the Catholic writers de- 
nominate Manicheans. but which are known to Pro- 
testants under the name of Albanenses, Albigenses. 
and Calhari. This mongrel race, it is well known, 
spread through Italy. France and Germany ; and, for 
a long period, suffered from the church all the cruelty 
that cunning could devise and power inflict. "It was 
" about the year 1150. that several parts of the conti- 
" nent had become pervaded by men. chiefly of the 
" poorer and laborious classes of life, who were form- 
" ing themselves into religious communities, distinct 
" from the established Catholic church, and who had 
" the Scriptures with them in their vernacular langua- 
" ges. and were intently and critically comparing the 
" tenets, system, and conduct of the papal clergy, 
" with the precepts and instructions of the evangelists 
" and apostles. They w ere universally diffused. In 
" France they were called Weavers. Poor of Lyons. 
" Waldenses, and Albigenses ; in Flanders. Piphles : 
" and in Germany. Cathari. They were at Bonn. 
" and in the diocese of Cologne : they abounded near 
" the Alps and Pyrenees ; they w ere greatly diffused 
" through Provence and in Tholouse ; they existed in 
i: Spain ; and had spread through Lombardy to Padua 
" and Florence, and some had even entered Naples. 



APPENDIX. 



301 



" They were distinguished for their missionary spirit, 
" and the caution with which they pursued it. 

With various opinions as to the Manichean doctrine 
of two original Principles, they were nevertheless uni- 
ted in denouncing, as antichristian, the authority, the 
ceremonies, and the whole hierarchy, of the Romish 
communion. It is probable that many of them held, 
in some form, the doctrine of the salvation of all 
souls ; for, of this they are accused by the Catholic 
writers, who also assert that they denied a future 
judgement and future punishment 12 

VII. We find a solitary trace of Uni- 
A. d. 1190. versalism, at this time, among the monks 

of France. At the city of Nevers, which 
stands on the river Loire, about a hundred and forty 
miles south of Paris, one Raynold, who presided as 
abbot over the monastery of St. Martin, was accused 
in a council, held this year, at Sens, of maintaining 
two errors, which were doubtless derived from the 
Paulicians : 1, That the bread of the sacrament was 
corruptible, and that it was digested, like other bread ; 
and 2, that all men will eventually be saved, as Ori- 
gen had taught. 13 What was the result of the com- 
plaint I know not. 

VIII. It is, perhaps, impossible to 
a. d. 1200, determine whether we ought to rank 

to 1210. Amalric, or Amauri, an eminent pro- 
fessor of logic and theology at Paris, 
among the Universalists. Like the celebrated Wick- 

* History of England, by Sharon Turner, Vol. ii. pp. 381, 382. 
Lond. 1815. N. B. This learned and philosophical historian fol- 
lows Gibbon, in deducing the above named sects from the Paulic- 
ians. 

12 - See Gabrielis Prateoli Marcossii Vita Ha?reticorum, Art. Al- 
banenses, Albigenses, &c. And Berti Breviarium Hist. Eccl. 
Cent. viii. — xii. cap. 3. And Notitiae Eccl. Pars Tertia, per So- 
dalet. Academ Bambergensem, &c. 

13 - Priestley's Hist, of the Christian Church, Period xviii. Sect, 
ix. pp. 136, 137. 

26 



, 302 



APPENDIX. 



liffe, 14 he was charged with holding the pantheistical 
tenet that the Universe is God ; but it is certain that 
the whole tenor of the doctrine attributed to him, op- 
poses that proposition, at least in its exceptionable 
sense. " According to Fleury, he held that, in order 
" to be saved, every person must believe that he is a 
6 \ member of Jesus Christ ; but, the pope condemn- 
6£ ing this opinion, he retracted it before his death. 
" Fleury also ascribes to the followers of Amauri an 
" opinion which is said to have taken its rise from a 
cc book by Joachim, entitled The Everlasting Gospel, 
" viz. That Jesus Christ abolished the old law, and 
" that in his time commenced the dispensation of the 
" holy spirit, in which confession, baptism, the eucha- 
" rist, and other sacraments, would have no place ; 
" but that persons might be saved by the interior 
ic grace of the Holy Spirit, without any external acts. 
" He moreover says that Amauri denied the resurrec- 
" tion, said that heaven and hell were in men's own 
" breasts, that the pope was Antichrist, and Rome 
" Babylon." 15 I shall now set down, in their own 
words, the catalogue which other Catholic writers 
have made of his errors : " 1, Amalric said that the 
" body of Christ was not otherwise present in the 
" bread of the sacrament, than as it is in other bread, 
" and in every thing else ; so that he denied transub- 
" stantiation. 2, He said that God had spoken by Ovid, 
" as much as by Augustine. 3, He denied the resurrec- 
" tion of the body, and likewise heaven and hell; saying 
u that whoever enjoyed the knowledge of Godin himself, 
" enjoyed alsoheaven in himself, and that on the contra- 
u ry whoever committed deadly sin, experienced hell in 
" himself. 4, He asserted that to dedicate altars to the 
" saints, to burn incense to images, and to invoke the 
" saints, was Idolatry. 5, He affirmed, not only with the 

14 - Lenfant's Hist, of the Council of Constance, Book iii. ch.42, 
Art. 28, vol. i. p. 419. 15 - Priestley's Hist, of the Christ. Church, 
Period xix. Sect. xi. pp. 296—299. 



APPENDIX. 



303 



" Armeni, that Adam and Eve would never have co- 
" habited, had they continued in their first state, but 
" also that there would have been no difference of 
" sex, and that the multiplication of mankind would 
" have been like that of the angels ; thus contradict- 
ing what is written in Genesis ; God created man 
u in his own image ; in his image created he him, 
" male and female. 6, He asserted that God is not 
" to be seen in himself, but in his creatures, as the 
" light is seen in the air. 7, He said that what would 
" otherwise be mortal sin, would, if done in charity, 
u be no sin : thus promising impunity to sinners. 8, 
" He affirmed that those ideas which are in the divine 
" mind, are both capable of being created, and actu- 
" ally are created ; when Augustine on the contrary 
" has declared, that there is nothing in the divine 
" mind, but what is eternal and incommunicable. 9, 
" He fancied that the soul of the contemplative, or 
" happy saint would lose itself, as to its own nature, 
" and return into that ideal existence which it had in 
6S the divine mind. 10, He taught that all creatures, 
u in the end, would return into God, and be converted 
" into him ; so that they will be one, individually, 
" with him. " 16 As this account is given by his ene- 
mies, we must make an allowance in his favor ; and 
it is not an unreasonable conclusion that he only op- 
posed the corruptions and errors of the Church, that 
he adopted some mystic notions which then prevailed 
concerning spiritual union with Deity, and that he be- 
lieved that God would finally become "all in all.' 5 
With regard to the resurrection, he may have made, like 
the celebrated Locke, some distinctions which gave 
his adversaries occasion to charge him with denying it. 

Some of the opinions of Amalric, or Amauri, as he 
is generally called, were condemned by the University 
of Paris, and likewise by Pope Innocent III. and, just 

16 - Summa Conciliornm, per M. L. Bail, Tom. i. p. 432, 



304 



APPENDIX. 



before his death, the author was compelled to retract 
them. But he left disciples ; and, in A. D. 1209, a 
council was called at Paris, in which ten priests or 
students of divinity were condemned to the flames, 
and four to perpetual imprisonment. At the same 
time, the name of Amauri, who had died in peace, 
was anathematized, and his bones were dug up and 
thrown upon a dunghill. 

IX. Salomon, metropolitan bishop of 
a. d. 122*2. Bassorah, on the Euphrates, about sev- 
enty miles from its mouth, was a writer 

of considerable renown among the Nestorians of the 
East. Some of his works, in the Syriac language, yet 
remain, though only in manuscript. In one of them 3 
he discusses the question, " Whether the demons and 
" sinners, who are now in hell, shall at length obtain 
" mercy, after having suffered their appointed punish- 
"ment, and been purified?" In answer, he quotes 
the affirmative opinion of Theodorus of Mopsuestia, 
and of Diodorus of Tarsus, and subscribes to it him- 
self. He also endeavors to show r , but it is said incon- 
clusively, that other Nestorian writers taught the same 
doctrine.* 

X. I present to the reader the follow- 
a. d. 1230, ing account entire, as it stands in a cath- 

to 1234. olic historian. I add no remarks, because 
every reflecting person will discover much 
incongruity between the different parts of the statement ; 
and every one, who is at all acquainted either with the 
habitual language of the old Romish authors concern- 
ing heretics, or with the odious representations that 
are even now given, in our own country, concerning 
Universalists, will readily understand the present case : 
6C Among all the sects which started up, during the 
" thirteenth century, there was none more detestable 
" than that of the Stadings, which showed itself by 

* Asseuiani Biblioth. Orientalis Tom, iii. Par. i. pp. 323, 324. 



APPENDIX. 



305 



c f the outrages and cruelties which it exercised, in 
" Germany, A. D, 1230, against the catholics, and 
" especially against the church-men. Those impious 
a persons honored Lucifer, and inveighed against God 
" himself, believing that he had unjustly comdemned 
Ci that angel to darkness, that one day he would be 
c ? re-established, and that they should be saved with 
u him. Whereupon they taught, that, until that time, 
c ? it was not requisite to do any thing which was pleas- 
6 J ing to God. but quite the contrary. They were per- 
u suaded that the devil appeared in their assemblies. 
" They therein committed infamous things, and utter- 
u ed strange blasphemies. It is said, that after they 
<£ had received the eucharist, at Easter, from the hands 
" of the [catholic] priest, they kept it in their mouths 
ce without swallowing it, in order to throw it away. 
" Those heretics spread themselves in the bishopric of 
" Breme, and in the frontiers of Friezland and Sax- 
" ony ; and getting to a head, they massacred the 
a ecclesiastics and monks, pillaged the churches and 
a committed a world of disorders. Pope Gregory IX. 
u excited the bishops and lords of those countries to 
" make war against them, in order to extirpate that 
" wicked race. The archbishop of Breme, the duke 
H of Brabant, and the count of Holland, having raised 

forces, marched, in the year 1234, to engage them. 
u They made a vigorous defence, but were at last de- 
" feated and cut to pieces. Six thousand were killed 
" upon the spot ; the rest perished in several ways, 
" and they were all routed ; so that there were but 
cc few left, who were converted and returned to their 

obedience the next year. " ll 

XI. " The sect of the Lollards spread 
a. d. 1315, " through Germany, and had for their 

&c. — " leader, Walter Lollard, who began to 
" disperse his errors about the year 1315, 

17 - Du Pin's Eccl. Hist. Vol. xi. ch. ix. p. 153. 

26* 



306 



APPENDIX. 



" They despised the sacraments of the [catholic] 
"church, and derided her ceremonies and her consti- 
" tutions, observed not the fasts of the church, nor its 
66 abstinences, acknowledged not the intercession of 
"the [deceased] saints, and believed that the damned 
u in hell, and the evil angels, should one day be saved. 
" Trithemius, who recites the errors of these sectaries, 
"says that Bohemia and Austria were infected with 
"them ; that there were above twenty-four thousand 
" persons in Germany who held these errors ; and that 
"the greater part defended them with obstinacy, even 
" unto death." 18 

XII. In England, Langham, archbish- 
a. .d 1368. op of Canterbury, convened a council, in 
A. D. 1368, and, with the advice of his 
divines, gave judgement against thirty propositions 
which were taught in his province. Among them, 
"the following opinions were condemned : 1, Every 
"man ought to have the free choice of turning to 
"God, or from him ; and according to this choice he 
"will be saved or damned. 2. Baptism is not neces- 
" sary to the salvation of infants. 3. No person will 
" be damned for original sin only. 4. Grace, as it is 
"commonly explained, is an illusion ; and eternal life 
"may be acquired by the force of nature. 5. Noth- 
"ing can be bad merely because it is forbidden, 6. 
"The fruit that Adam was forbidden to eat, was for- 
" bidden because it was in itself bad. 7. Man is 
" necessarily mortal, Jesus Christ included, as well as 
"other animals. 8. All the damned, even the de- 
"mons, may be restored and become happy. 9. God 
"cannot make a reasonable creature impeccable, or 
"free from a liability to sin. It was an honor to the 
"age and to the country," says Priestley, "to produce 
" such sentiments as these ; but it was but a sudden 

18 - Du Pin's Eccl. Hist. Vol. xii. eh. viii. p. 113. 



APPENDIX. 



307 



u blaze in the midst of much thick darkness, and, as 
"/ar as appears, was soon extinguished." 19 

XIII. "In the year 1411, a sect was 
a. d. 1400, " discovered in Flanders, and more espe- 
to 1412. "cially at Brussels, which owed its origin 
61 to an illiterate man, whose name was 
"iEgidius Cantor, and to William of Hildenissen, a 
" Carmelite monk, and whose members were distin- 
guished by the title of Men of Understanding. 
" There were many things " says Mosheim, " repre- 
" hensible in the doctrine of this sect, which seemed 
"to be chiefly derived from " the theology of the Mys- 
u tics. For they pretended to be honored with celestial 
" visions, denied that any could arrive at a perfect 
"knowledge of the holy Scriptures, without the extra- 
ordinary succors of a divine illumination; declared 
"the approach of a new revelation from heaven, more 
"'complete and perfect than the gospel of Christ; 
"maintained that the resurrection was already accom- 
plished in the person of Jesus, and that no other 
"'resurrection was to be expected; affirmed that the 
" inward man was not defiled by the outward actions, 
"whatever they were ; that the pains of hell were to 
"have an end, and that, not only all mankind, but 
"even the devils themselves, were to return to God, 
" and be made partakers of eternal felicity. This sect 
"seems to have been a branch of that of The Breth- 
" ren and Sisters of the Free Spirit; since they 
"declared that a new T dispensation of grace and spir- 
" itual liberty was to be promulgated to mortals by the 
" Holy Ghost. It must, however, be acknowledged, 
"'on the other hand, that their absurdities were min- 
" gled with several opinions which showed that they 
" were not totally void of understanding ; for they 
"maintained, among other things, 1. that Christ alone 



19, Priestley's Hist, of the Christian Church, Period xx. Sect, 
xii. pp. 498, 499. See also Du Pin's Eccl. Hist. Vol. xii. ch. viii. 
p. 115. 



308 



APPENDIX. 



" had merited eternal life and felicity for the human 
•'•'race, and that, therefore, men could not acquire this 
"inestimable privilege by their own actions alone; 
" 2. that the priests, to whom the people confessed 
"'their transgressions, had not the power of absolving 
" them, but that it was Christ alone in whom this 
"'authority was vested: and 3. that voluntary pen- 
"' ance and mortification were not necessary to salva- 
tion. These propositions however, and some others, 
" were declared heretical by Peter D'Ailly, bishop of 
" Cambray, who obliged William of Hildenissen to 
"'abjure them, and who opposed with the greatest 
" vehemence and success the progress of this sect." 20 
Such is Mosheim's account, which is the most particu- 
lar I have seen, 

XIV. John Picus, earl of Mirandola 
a. d. 1480, and Concordia, a distinguished scholar in 
to 1494. Italy, alarmed the church, about this pe- 
riod, by advancing some opinions which 
properly come under our notice. From infancy he- 
had evinced a remarkable quickness of mind and a 
prodigious memory. At the age of fourteen, he studied 
law at Bologne : and, afterwards, spent seven years in 
visiting the most famous universities of France and 
Italy, and in conversing with the learned of those 
countries. He then went to Rome ; and in A. D. 
1486, when he was only twenty-one years old, he 
published, in this city, nine hundred propositions upon 
various subjects in the several branches of theology, 
magic, the cabalistic art, and philosophy, and engaged 
to maintain them in public disputation, according to a 
custom of those times. These propositions were, for 
the most part, either of a metaphysical kind, or of a 
character merely verbal ; but among them were the 
following, of a more important nature : "Jesus Christ 
" did not descend into hell in person, but only in 

Mosheim's Eccl. Hist. Cent. xv. Part ii. ch. v. 4. 



APPENDIX. 



309 



" effect ; Infinite pain is not due even to mortal sin ; 
" because sin is finite, and therefore merits but finite 
" punishment ; Neither crosses nor images ought to be 
" adored ; There is more reason to believe that Origen 
" was saved, than that he was damned &c." But, 
instead of a controversy which he had challenged, he 
found that other means were likely to be employed in 
refuting him. His enemies sounded the alarm of 
heresy ; the pope appointed commissioners to examine 
his publications ; and, to his dismay, they at length 
brought in a judgement censuring the foregoing prop- 
ositions, together with nine others, some of which 
seemed to disagree with the doctrine of transubstan- 
tiation. Upon this, Picus wrote an Apology, and by 
means of metaphysical subtleties, explained away the 
heretical character of the obnoxious propositions, and 
humbly submitted himself to the Holy See. As to 
his former statement concerning the demerit of sin, he 
now endeavored to reconcile it with the doctrine of 
endless misery. After all, the pope forbade the read- 
ing of his books ; and, sometime afterwards, when 
Picus had retired from Rome, he was cited to appear 
before the tribunal of the church. But while this was 
yet pending, he obtained an absolution from the pon- 
tiff, in the year 1493. After this, he devoted himself 
wholly to the study of the Scriptures, and to contro- 
versial writings, resigning his earldom, and distributing 
all his goods among the poor. He died at Florence, 
A. D. 1494, aged only twenty-nine years. 21 

XV. In the year 1498, a Spanish 
a. d. 1490, prelate, by the name of Peter D'Aranda, 
to 1498. was degraded and condemned to perpetual 
imprisonment in the castle of St. Angelo 
at Rome, on being convicted, it is said, of Judaism. 
He was bishop of Calahorra in Old Castile, near the 
river Ebro ; and he held the office of Master of the 

21 - Du Pin's Eccl. Hist. vol. xiii. ch. 4. pp. 95, 96. 



310 



APPENDIX. 



sacred palace. He is said to have taught that the 
Jewish religion acknowledged but one Principle, while 
the Christian recognized three. — alluding probably to 
the doctrine of the trinity. " In his prayers he said, 
" Glory to the Father, without adding, to the So?!, or, 
" to the Holy Ghost. He said that indulgences were 
"of no avail, but were invented for the profit that 
" was drawn from them ; that there was neither pur- 
"gatory nor hell, but only paradise. He observed no 
" fasts, and said mass after dinner. From his saying 
"mass, or receiving the Lord's supper, it is evident 
"he was not a Jew r , but probably a Unitarian Chris- 
tian," 22 

22 - Priestley's Hist, of the Christian Church, Period xxi. 
Sect. vii. 



Note. A few errors have escaped in the spelling of proper 
names. The most of them, however, are such as will be easily 
detected by the reader. The author was unable to examine 
many of the proof-sheets, as he lived at a distance from the 
place of publication. 



PROVIDENCE : BENJAMIN F. MOORE. PRINTER. 



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